Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change [1 ed.] 9781563686207, 9781563686191

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Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved. Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved.

Telling Deaf Lives

Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved. Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Telling Deaf Lives Agents of Change

Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved.

Kristin Snoddon, Editor

Gallaudet University Press Washington, DC

Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Gallaudet University Press Washington, DC 20002 http://gupress.gallaudet.edu © 2014 by Gallaudet University All rights reserved. Published 2014 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Telling deaf lives : agents of change/edited by Kristin Snoddon.   pages cm Summary: “The best of the 8th Deaf History International Conference, ­members of international Deaf communities around the world relate their own autobiographies as well as the biographies of historical Deaf individuals in this engrossing collection”—Provided by publisher. Summary: “Stories told by deaf people about deaf people around the world”—Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-56368-619-1 (paperback)—ISBN 1-56368-619-8 (paperback)— ISBN 978-1-56368-620-7 (e-book) 1. Deaf. 2. Storytelling. I. Snoddon, Kristin, editor. HV2353.T45 2014 362.4'20922—dc23 2014014527

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∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 ­(Permanence of Paper). Cover photographs (clockwise from left): Leonid Kamyshev, Ekaterina (Katya) Lepeshkin, Daisy Muir, and Samuel Porter.

Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

For Anita Small

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t

Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved. Telling Deaf Lives : Agents of Change, edited by Kristin Snoddon, Gallaudet University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,

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Contents

Prefacexi Kristin Snoddon Forewordxiii Anita Small

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Introductionxxi Joseph J. Murray Part 1: Autobiographies On Writing My Story as Deaf History Ulla-Bell Thorin (Sweden) Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing Harry G. Lang (United States)

3 11

Part 2:  Biographies of Deaf Pioneers Finding the Connections: Educated Deaf People in  England in the Mid-Seventeenth Century Peter Jackson (United Kingdom)

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23

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viii : Contents

Writing Resistance: Edwin A. Hodgson and  the Controversy at St. Ann’s Church Jannelle Legg (United States)

32

Hannah Holmes: A Case of Japanese American  Deaf Incarceration Newby Ely (United States)

45

Józef Jerzy Rogowski: A Unique Figure in Polish Deaf History Tomasz Adam Świderski (Poland)

57

Matsumura Sei-ichirÔ: The First Deaf President of a  Japanese School for Deaf People Akio Suemori (Japan)

74

Remembering a Legacy: Samuel Thomas Greene Clifton F. Carbin (Canada)

87

Written into History: The Lives of Australian Deaf Leaders Darlene Thornton (Australia), Susannah Macready (Australia), and Patricia Levitzke-Gray (Australia)

93

Laurent Clerc: A Complex and Conflicted  Deaf Man in America Christopher A. N. Kurz (United States) and Albert J. Hlibok (United States)

102

Part 3: Deaf Community Collective Histories: Stories from the Continents The Siege of Leningrad and Its Impact on the  Life of a Deaf Family Tatiana Davidenko (Russia)

117

The Oral History and Experience of the  Deaf Community in ­Russia Victor Palenny (Russia)

125

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Contents : ix

Signs of Freedom: Deaf Connections in the Amistad Story Kim A. Silva (United States)

136

The Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club Melissa Anderson (Australia) and Breda Carty (Australia)

148

Part 4:  Deaf Arts Evolution The History of Poetic Style: De’VIA Poetry Theara Yim (Canada) and Julie Chateauvert (Canada)

165

Southwestern De’VIA: The Origin of Multicultural De’VIA Tony Landon McGregor (United States)

173

Photographing Deaf People: The Lives and Works of  Three ­Pioneers in American Deaf Photography Drew Robarge (United States)

180

The Vineyarders: A Fusion of History and Fiction Veronica Bickle (Canada), Bob Paul and Jennifer Paul (United States)

191

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Part 5:  Preserving and Accessing Deaf History Digital Personal Documents: Preservation Challenges Marc-André Bernier (Canada)

201

Finding Hidden Treasures: Research Help in the  Library and Archives Diana Moore (United States) and Joan Naturale (United States)

211

Contributors

223

Index

227

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Preface

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Kristin Snoddon

My role as editor of Telling Deaf Lives: Agents of Change came about through my involvement with the Eighth Deaf History International Conference Program Committee in the year leading up to the conference. The papers for this meeting, which was held July 24–July 29, 2012, in Toronto, Canada, were selected on the basis of their relevance to and compatibility with the conference themes: Deaf pioneers, or individuals who have made an important historical impact; stories from the continents, or group histories; multimedia archives, or historical document preservation; storytelling pedagogy, or historical novels; history of deaf comedy; and the history of Deaf View/Image Art (De’VIA) artists. The committee also sought to ensure the inclusion of Deaf community historians from as wide a range of contexts as possible. This book’s importance derives from its attention to stories told by Deaf people about Deaf people from around the world. The individuals described are often highly accomplished and educated, and they demonstrate great leadership for their time and social position. Such figures instill us with a collective sense of pride in the Deaf community and our tenacity in the face of historical barriers to self-actualization. In ­celebrating this expression of individual and collective histories, the ­importance of art and storytelling is highlighted. It is my hope that

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r­ eaders of this book will gain a deeper appreciation of and insight into the lives and historic contributions of Deaf people and will be inspired to undertake further research with an eye to the preservation of Deaf community history on a global scale. As this book demonstrates, the telling of Deaf history is a multimodal, interdisciplinary enterprise that ranges from the digital creation and preservation of sign language storytelling and poetry to the visual arts of painting and photography and to the writing of letters, novels, and carefully researched biographies. This book therefore stands as an invitation, in Joseph Valente’s words, “to come forward and tell your stories in whatever way you can and want to tell them.”1 As a member of the Eighth Deaf History International Conference Program Committee and as editor, I have been privileged to work with the authors and historians whose work is featured in this book. My ­position as David Peikoff Chair of Deaf Studies at the University of ­Alberta ­provided me with the support I needed to carry out my work as editor. This book is dedicated to Anita Small in recognition of her contributions to the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf, which hosted the Eighth Deaf History International Conference.

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Note 1. Joseph Valente, “Hearing the Unheard,” TEDxPSU. December 6, 2012, http:// tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxPSU-Dr-Joseph-Valente-Heari;search%3Atag%3A%22T EDxPSU%22 (accessed February 5, 2014).

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Foreword

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Anita Small

Telling Deaf Lives: Agents of Change is a historical text inspired by presentations at the Eighth Deaf History International Conference in July 2012 in Toronto, Canada. The Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf hosted the conference. Members of the Deaf 1 community from around the globe were encouraged to record their own autobiographies as well as those of individuals who came before them. The conference featured three keynote presenters, twenty-one plenary sessions, workshops, poster sessions, and three documentaries for a total of twenty-seven presentations. Presenters at the conference represented twelve countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. For the first time, the Deaf History International Conference featured a Documentary Awards Program, sponsored by the Ontario Deaf Foundation, to encourage alternate forms of recording biographies, autobiographies, and group histories that are particularly pertinent in the Deaf community given that sign languages are best captured on film. In this book, the real lives of Deaf people as individuals and as parts of a collective take their rightful place in history through storytelling that ­reaches a large audience far beyond one conference. The stories are told through a variety of methods, including autobiographies, biographies,

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v­isual art, ­literature (sign language poetry and historical novels), and ­photography. In these ways, the contributors become agents of change as they preserve Deaf people’s contributions and experiences for generations to come. The book moves from the personal telling of one’s history through autobiography to sharing other individuals’ histories via biographies and then to sharing collective histories and the products of those histories in terms of evolution of the arts. It concludes with instructions on how to preserve and access these stories and products of history. In this way, readers become engaged in a collective accountability to pass on this rich Deaf experience to future generations. The book is intentionally subtitled Agents of Change to convey the message that while the individual pioneers and collective Deaf people studied are “agents of change,” so too are the readers as recipients of the knowledge of these individual and collective lives, and they become accountable as potential agents of change to do something with this new knowledge. The twenty-eight authors included here come from eight countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, Poland, Russia, Sweden, England, and the United States. However, their essays range far beyond these eight countries. For example, Melissa Anderson and Breda Carty’s article about the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club describes a potent nineteenthcentury transnational network and sharing of life stories through letter writing that crossed ten countries. This chapter invokes Joseph Murray’s notion of the adeptness of the Deaf community at building transnational sharing of life stories, even in the nineteenth century.2 Furthermore, if one examines Telling Deaf Lives as a whole, one finds patterns that disclose transnational themes, as historians recount their lives and those of their communities. This book is designed to highlight some of these themes, thereby connecting the global Deaf community. As a sociolinguist and ethnographic researcher, I have focused on finding and highlighting interaction patterns as Deaf people take their rightful place in society. I served as program chair for the Eighth Deaf History International Conference in 2012 because I recognized its importance as a vehicle for the international Deaf community to record, analyze, and distribute information about the significant interactions, experiences, and contributions of Deaf people over time. A number of

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Foreword : xv

existing scholarly historical texts record the lives of Deaf individuals and groups within single countries, but few cover the international scene.3 What does this unique collection of Telling Deaf Lives tell us and why does it progress as it does?

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Autobiographies In becoming agents of change, we must begin with ourselves. This book therefore begins with a simple and powerful chapter by Ulla-Bell Th ­ orin. It is her firsthand account of growing up Deaf in Sweden and the process of authoring six autobiographies. She was mentored by her mother, who was a prolific author, but was also motivated by everyday occurrences and injustices that she saw in her own educational environment. In her ­chapter Thorin bears witness to her experiences and shares them with us. By exposing the truths from her lifetime, we are compelled to ­respond to the present-day educational environment for Deaf children. This section transitions into Harry Lang’s reflections on writing ­biographies of numerous Deaf Americans in the arts and sciences. Lang’s chapter is autobiographical in the sense that it describes his own life journey in recording biographies. Lang’s moment of action as a ­biographer was propelled by a meeting with Dr. Stephen Hawking, who said to him, “It must be difficult to be Deaf.”4 This brief conversation launched Lang on a journey to discover the roles that societal attitudes played in the education and employment of Deaf individuals in the field of ­science. Together, these two chapters provide insights into the authors’ ­motivations and worldview and the process of writing autobiographies and biographies as forms of witness to Deaf life experiences and ­contributions.

Biographies of Deaf Pioneers This section focuses on individuals who made important historical contributions. It begins with Peter Jackson’s chapter about the biographies of five Deaf individuals from seventeenth-century England,

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all of whom demonstrated unique literacy for their era. Historically, low literacy levels among Deaf individuals have been assumed to e­ xist without due analysis of the educational system that has perpetuated this situation. Jackson’s chapter is a r­ efreshing account of high literacy ­levels among Deaf individuals, serving as a counterpoint to the longheld and misunderstood phenomenon of literacy or the lack thereof in the Deaf ­community. The chapter by Jannelle Legg includes the biography of a Deaf leader who used the Deaf press as a form of resistance in ­responding to a US Deaf church’s loss of cherished Deaf cultural space. Interestingly, these two chapters highlight the use of written literacy for two distinct purposes. Jackson’s goal is to emphasize the literacy of Deaf ­individuals in the mid-seventeenth century, thus dispelling the myth of a lack of literacy among Deaf people in Britain at this time. His emphasis on ­instances of literacy is nicely situated next to Legg’s chapter, which calls attention to the historical use of literacy for political activism. ­Edwin A. Hodgson, editor of the Deaf Mutes’ Journal, used the press as a tool of resistance against the closure of a treasured Deaf cultural space. In the late nineteenth century, Saint Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes in New York City was to merge with the local hearing church, and the press became the vehicle for Deaf agency and activism. Jackson’s and Legg’s chapters address different time frames and different parts of the world, but both focus on the use of written literacy and its empowering influence. One can relate this as well to Anderson and Carty’s chapter about the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club in the following section, which highlights the way in which transnational letter writing linked Deaf community members around the world and thus served as a form of empowerment. Again, we see literacy as a tool for agency, one that can ­enable Deaf people to take charge of their lives and connect to other members of the community. Newby Ely’s chapter in the second section examines the inspiring life and work of Hannah Tagaki Holmes, a Deaf Japanese American activist who, despite multiple hardships, discrimination, and incarceration at two US internment camps, obtained an education and fought for the rights of Deaf people and those with disabilities. The carefully researched piece by Tomasz Świderski highlights the ambitious life of a high-ranking Deaf politician, Joseph George Rogowski, and features his

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efforts to fulfill his dreams and his sacrifices to improve conditions for Deaf Polish individuals in pre–World War II Poland. The next three chapters focus on the contributions of Deaf activists, community leaders, and politicians in several countries: Akio Suemori’s account of the first Deaf president of a Japanese school for Deaf s­ tudents; the life of the first Deaf teacher in Ontario, Canada, by Clifton Carbin; and the lives of two Australian Deaf leaders as recounted by Darlene Thornton, Susannah Macready, and Patricia Levitzke-Gray. All three chapters have the goal of ensuring that the contributions of these leaders do not go unnoticed. The section concludes with a chapter by Christopher Kurz and ­Albert Hlibok about Laurent Clerc’s personal struggles and successes. It includes evidence of Clerc’s double consciousness, which influenced his personal perspectives, and new information about his family, work, and interactions with prominent historical figures. This chapter makes an important contribution in that it points to the humanity and complexity of ­revered historical figures. Issues of identity and Deafhood are increasingly ­discussed in the transnational Deaf community t­oday, and it is comforting to relate to great historical figures and learn from their ­personal struggles with identity. In his book Understanding Deaf ­Culture: In Search of D ­ eafhood, Paddy Ladd clearly points out that ­Deafhood is an “existential state of being-in-the-world” and is “not seen as a finite state but as a process by which Deaf individuals come to actualize their Deaf identity, positing that those individuals construct that identity around several differently ordered sets of priorities and principles, which are affected by various factors such as nation, era and class.”5 Kurz and ­Hlibok’s chapter is illuminating in that it humanizes Clerc, who wrestled with the same stages of identity development and the ­evolution of Deafhood that Ladd discusses. The chapter encourages readers to consider not only the authors’ insights into Clerc’s inner existential state of being as a Deaf person in a predominantly hearing world but also the ways in which readers self-identify today. It is particularly interesting to consider the notion of identity and Deafhood as related to a Deaf leader who made a profound impact by contributing to the history of sign language in North America and cofounding the first school for Deaf students in North America.

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Deaf Community Collective Histories: Stories from the Continents This section shares collective memories from the siege of Leningrad, Russia, by Tatiana Davidenko, who writes about her own Deaf family’s experience during this period, and Victor Palenny’s chapter, based on the filmed oral (both signed and spoken) stories of elderly Deaf ­Russians. Palenny’s chapter explores community members’ strong feelings of identity and belonging to the Deaf world during the tumultuous years of World War II and the period of industrialization that followed. This section also includes accounts that aim to ensure that the Deaf community is not “written out of history,” such as Kim Silva’s story of the role of the American School for the Deaf in the famous Amistad affair, which involved the freeing of African slaves wrongly held in the United States. The section ends with a chapter written by Australian authors Anderson and Carty, which describes the transnational nineteenth-­ century network of Deaf people in the form of a Deaf correspondence club. This final chapter points strongly to Ladd’s explanation of the Deafhood dimension referred to earlier in this foreword. Ladd explains that Deafhood is a process of “becoming” through a continuous internal and external dialogue as Deaf individuals contemplate their identity and what being a Deaf person in a Deaf community means to them. Deafhood incorporates collective culture, collective history, collective arts, and collective spiritual issues.6 The Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club is a prime example of agency in that Deaf individuals from all over the globe sought each other out, thereby broadening their Deaf horizons as they connected with each other to create a transnational shared experience through letter writing.

Deaf Arts Evolution Tracing the historical development of Deaf arts, this section includes a chapter authored by Theara Yim and Julie Chateauvert of Canada, who describe the stylistic development of sign language poetry through time in relation to the Deaf View/Image Art (De’VIA) movement.7 A chapter by Tony McGregor examines the rise of Southwestern De’VIA in the

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Foreword : xix

United States. Drew Robarge examines three Deaf American photographers from the nineteenth century and demonstrates how the study of photographers and their work provides insights into Deaf experiences that other sources do not impart. The section ends with a chapter written jointly by Veronica Bickle of Canada and Jennifer Paul and Bob Paul of the United States, describing their process of creating a historical novel based on the true history of Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, where many Deaf people lived between the seventeenth and the early twentieth centuries. On this island, everyone used sign language, and Deaf people were central to its political and public life. Taken together, these four chapters have in common the use of the arts—poetry, visual art, photography, and literature—as media for sharing Deaf lives and preserving history for ­future generations.

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Preserving and Accessing Deaf History This final section includes a chapter by Marc-André Bernier of ­Canada, which highlights archival methodologies and the technical processes of preserving history, including digitization. This section concludes with a chapter written by Diana Moore and Joan Naturale of the U ­ nited States, which describes how historical treasures can be accessed and provides tips for researching in libraries and archives. This section discusses ­issues of preservation in light of the rapidly expanding availability of sign ­language texts in digital format. We must proceed mindfully to preserve Deaf history, ensuring that the stories of contributions, a­ rtistic forms, and bearing witness are not lost over time. With the a­dvent of greater and ever-changing technologies in the digital age, we have a ­responsibility to access these stories, share them, and create new ­documentation to add to the collective memory. In this way, the collective memory will continue to expand and be passed on to inform the future, and readers themselves will become potential agents of change as they connect to the authors they have read. In summary, this book provides both an international perspective on Deaf history and insights from autobiographers, biographers, researchers, and historical archivists. It is about the Deaf community

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taking charge of its own stories and history, compelling readers not only to learn about Deaf history but also to take action by sharing what they have learned and by recording their own Deaf lives and those of the Deaf community around them.

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Notes 1. Capital “D” is used throughout this foreword. I do not assume the cultural identity of any particular individual in any particular historical period. Rather, this usage is intended to reflect the view that any Deaf individual, by virtue of having been born Deaf or become so, has a birthright to a Deaf culture and to a sign language. 2. J. Murray, “Taking a Transnational Approach to Deaf History,” in No History, No Future: Proceedings of the 7th DHI International Conference, Stockholm 2009, edited by T. Hedberg (Orebro, Sweden: Swedish Deaf History Society, 2011), 20–26. 3. See, for example, J. Gannon, Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf ­America (Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, 1981); J. V. Van Cleve, ed., Deaf History Unveiled (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1993); H. Lang, Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995); C. Carbin, Deaf Heritage in Canada (Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1996); P. Jackson and R. Lee, Deaf Lives: Deaf People in History (Middlesex: British Deaf History Society, 2001); R. Fischer and H. Lane, Looking Back: A Reader on the History of Deaf Communities and Their Sign Languages (Hamburg: Signum, 1993); M. Zaurov, Overcoming the Past: Determining Its Consequences and Finding Solutions for the Present (Fulda: Signum, 2009); and T. Hedberg, No History, No Future: Proceedings of the 7th DHI International Conference, Stockholm 2009 (Orebro: Swedish Deaf History Society, 2011). 4. H. Lang, Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing, chapter 2 (this ­volume). 5. Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood (Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2003), xviii. 6. Ibid., 170. 7. The term “Deaf View/Image Art” was coined by Deaf artists and explained in the De’VIA Manifesto, created in May 1989 at the Deaf Way arts festival in Washington, DC.

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Introduction

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Joseph J. Murray

Every book needs a unifying thread. This book covers a period of time from the mid-seventeenth century to the late twentieth century and ­includes topics ranging from the global sociopolitical upheaval of the Second World War to the activities of a correspondence club composed of ten individuals. Geographically, the histories presented here relate experiences from the Siberian plateau all the way to a small town in Illinois. They tell the stories of, among others, artists, self-published ­authors, scientists, members of the Communist Party, and workingclass women. The threads that unify these histories are their diversity and their relation to the lives of deaf people. This collection has been made possible by the creation of a space for such explorations, partially via the establishment of Deaf History International (DHI) in 1991.1 Triennial conferences organized by DHI (and often by Deaf community organizations) attract a wider range of participants than are normally found at academic gatherings. The usual denizens of scholarly meetings—academic historians and graduate students—are in the minority at these conferences, where they are outnumbered by community historians and members of the Deaf ­community. This book can thus be seen as an artifact of a transnational phenomenon: a widespread interest in the collection, documentation,

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and dissemination of Deaf history by and for members of the Deaf community. This book is situated within this movement of community historians and within the DHI tradition, with a mixture of articles by both academic historians and community historians. The chapters reflect the concerns of members of various Deaf communities: They uncover the histories of deaf pioneers, deaf stories as part of larger historical events, and, above all, the lived experiences of deaf people within their societies. These community historians have filled the vacuum left by the relative paucity of professional historians of Deaf history, especially outside US history. The late community historian Jochen Muhs was an internationally renowned presenter who, while best known for his important work unearthing the experiences of deaf Germans in the National Socialist era, also published pamphlets on important nineteenth-century deaf Germans. The work of individuals such as Muhs has been supported by organizations for the study of Deaf history in Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and other countries. A number of these societies issue publications, whether books or journals, that further document the history of their national Deaf communities. The work of the British Deaf History Society—which has produced a long list of books, a regularly published journal, and an archive—is especially impressive. Historian Joseph Amato writes, “Local history provides facts, ­comparisons, and contexts . . . for the abstract reaches of contemporary ­social sciences and history.” The “fidelity” of such community historians is to “details, anecdotes, and particularities.”2 And indeed, the articles in this collection cover “particularities” and “details” of deaf experiences. But taken together, they present readers with a compelling narrative that stands alongside that of academic histories and presents the lives of deaf people as being firmly situated within the societies in which they reside. I have earlier written of the concept of “co-equality,” which is the notion that deaf people are simultaneously part of their larger societies even as they create and maintain spaces in which to live as sign-language-using deaf people.3 This fluidity is present throughout Telling Deaf Lives. It is the “details” and “anecdotes” of deaf lives that help us understand what it means to navigate one’s difference across various places and times in ­history. The experience of being deaf is not solely that of being a m ­ inority

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within a larger society but also that of inhabiting deaf-centered spaces, spaces that also replicate discourses found in larger society. This multiple situating of deaf lives can be seen in Harry Lang’s ­elegantly written reflection on writing biographies of deaf people. Lang borrows the image of a binary star—a solar system with two suns—as a metaphor for the “companion worlds” of deaf and hearing people. His biographies of deaf scientists show the contributions of deaf people in the sciences (at least ten craters on the moon, Mars, and Venus are named after deaf people) and to society at large. As Lang notes, “the experience of deaf people in history holds much power for better u ­ nderstanding our own world,” a truism reflected in other chapters in this volume.4 Moving from outer space to conceptual spaces of organization and resistance, Jannelle Legg explores the political strategies used by Edwin A. Hodgson during a controversy over the merger of a deaf church, Saint Ann’s, with a hearing church in New York City in the 1890s. Legg’s meticulous research shows Hodgson as a shrewd advocate who used deaf and hearing spaces to advance the argument for an independent deaf church. As she demonstrates, deaf-centered spaces were not separate self-contained spaces but could rather serve as a “space of resistance” in which deaf arguments could influence larger society. Deaf people have long had transnational interconnections, and the chapter by Melissa Anderson and Breda Carty shows how deaf people of different nations corresponded across great distances via the formation of the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club, composed of individuals in Australia, western Europe, and the United States. Deaf women ­comprised a majority of the members of the correspondence club. Anderson and Carty’s work makes an important contribution to ongoing studies of the transnational lives of deaf people. It shows that when we look beyond explicitly political activities such as conferences to a broader array of transnational interactions such as letter writing, a wider range of deaf people can be seen to be transnational actors. The club’s members were “observant, aware, socially progressive people who were for the most part allied with established institutions such as schools, churches, and welfare organizations for deaf people,” and their correspondence shows an expanded space in which to understand deaf political activities.5

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A cluster of articles looks at the lives and endeavors of deaf ­pioneers. Akio Suemori traces the story of Sei-ichirô Matsumura (1849–1891), the first president of the Kanazawa school for the deaf and blind. Suemori uncovers biographical details of Matsumura’s life, including that he was deafened at the age of fourteen and was a translator of an American geography textbook. It places Matsumura in the tradition of Japanese scholars oriented toward the West and as an important figure in ­Japanese Deaf history. Christopher Kurz and Albert Hlibok write of different challenges, namely those faced by Laurent Clerc, cofounder of deaf education in the United States, and interpret Clerc’s response to them using twenty-first-century ideas such as audism. Clifton Carbin’s contribution is a biography of Samuel Greene, the first deaf teacher at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, who was present at the school’s opening in 1870. Carbin’s story of how he became interested in Greene’s life will be familiar to those who have spent time researching Deaf history. It began with “a huge, impressive 1890 portrait of a man” that hung in the school’s ­auditorium. Such portraits exist in numerous schools, and the discovery that they portray deaf people is often a catalyst for increased historical awareness by local Deaf communities. Indeed, uncovering and honoring deaf people from the past is an explicit goal of many community historians. Peter Jackson is a prolific author of historical texts published by the British Deaf History Society. His contribution to this volume explores written records about three deaf men in seventeenth-century Britain. Jackson began this research by challenging himself to find the existence of deaf people before the ­establishment of formal deaf education in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Jackson uses archival records, a will, and other texts to uncover the lives, work, and signing abilities of three deaf men of the period. His compelling synopsis is an excellent example of a well-­researched community history. Continuing in this biographical vein, Darlene ­ Thornton, Susannah Macready, and ­Patricia Levitzke-Gray ­narrate the influence of two mid-twentieth-century Deaf community leaders in Australia, Fletcher Booth and Dorothy Shaw. They ask two questions about these leaders: “How did they contribute to the A ­ ustralian Deaf Community?” and “What have they left behind”? Both leaders were

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a­ ctive in establishing organizations and publications that fostered deaf political awareness and strengthened the Australian Deaf community. The answers to these questions show how contemporary Deaf communities use history for the maintenance of community norms of working for the benefit of a larger community of deaf people. Drew Robarge’s essay on three US deaf photographers goes beyond thumbnail biographical sketches to explore “deaf cultural sensibilities at the turn of the twentieth century.”6 Robarge relates how being deaf formed a crucial part of these photographers’ lives, but historians can find only indeterminate visual evidence of deafness in their photographs. In the collective body of work by these three photographers, only two photographs depict sign language. Theophilus d’Estrella’s photographs of students at the C ­ alifornia School for the Deaf are representative of this lack of representation—these photographs show no evidence of whether the photographer or the students were deaf. As Robarge notes, although “deaf people might have embraced the invisibility of deafness in these photographers’ works, that invisibility hampers researchers who are unable to distinguish ­between the deaf and the hearing in the creator and the subject.”7 Robarge shows deaf people living within hearing society while making significant contributions to the Deaf community in organizations, artwork, and publications. This interaction ­between deaf and hearing society is also present in Theara Yim and Julie Chateauvert’s piece on ASL poetry. These authors look at the evolution of ASL poetry by analyzing works of prominent ASL poets Clayton Valli and the team of the Flying Words Project, made up of Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner. Valli’s work was “explicitly one of validation,” showing the ­legitimacy of ASL poetry vis-à-vis English literature. The Flying Words Project, by ­contrast, is a project of “radical affirmation” in that it considers deaf cultural identity alongside other cultural identities. Fittingly, this book looks at the lived experiences of deaf people via oral histories and biographical and autobiographical narratives. A quick look at library collections of deaf works will uncover a large number of biographies and autobiographies. Albert Ballin, in his semifictional autobiography, The Deaf Mute Howls, makes clear the reason for this plethora of personal-experience narratives in deaf discourses: “Long, loud and cantankerous is the howl raised by the deaf-mute! . . . He ought to keep it up incessantly until the wrongs inflicted on him will have been

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righted and done away with forever.”8 Deaf women and men saw the sharing of personal-experience narratives as a political act, as a way to explain to an unknowing society what it means to be deaf. Victor Palenny’s article contains fascinating stories told by deaf people in the twentieth-century Soviet Union, which were gathered via oral history interviews. It is important to note that Palenny’s work was done as part of a team of three community historians, showing deaf people collecting the signed histories of other deaf people. Palenny relates that some deaf people worked outside the Communist system to earn extra money on the side, selling postcards or cards with the manual alphabet. These stories are reminiscent of Br’er Rabbit stories in that they portray deaf people winning over hearing oppressors. Exploring similar stories in the British Deaf community, Paddy Ladd calls them examples of a “covert level of social praxis and political activity, the ‘1001 victories’ ” composed of small-scale acts of resistance and rebellion.9 However, the deaf experience was about not only resistance to power but also collaboration. Palenny shows another side of the deaf experience: the role of deaf people as loyal members of the socialist system. Interviewees who had prominent roles in the government-sanctioned national association of deaf people proudly related the stories of their roles as “constructors of socialism.”10 Tatiana Davidenko also shows the multiple roles played by deaf people. She recounts her deaf ­family’s ­privations during the World War II siege of Leningrad. Her family’s ­suffering began earlier in Stalin’s time, when they lost their bakery and the author’s grandfather was sent to a concentration camp. But the main focus is the siege itself. Several members of Davidenko’s family died, and those remaining survived by escaping on a “Deaf boat” organized by the Leningrad branch of the VOG, the All-Russian Society of the Deaf. The boat left the city via Lake Ladoga, a route along which thousands had already perished. Davidenko’s story is a chilling account of a famous historical event based on the experiences of one deaf family. She combines research by other historians with her mother’s stories, which were told only to her daughter and only late in her mother’s life. Davidenko highlights the Russian Deaf community’s fear of openly sharing negative experiences due to their oppression during the Stalin era. Equally important to this

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persecution was the fear of those around them—including deaf people— who sought to adhere to the official line. Both Davidenko and Palenny show the power of oral history in uncovering a range of experiences and illuminating the ways in which deaf people navigate larger society, both resisting and adopting ideologies from the societies in which they lived. Newby Ely also looks at deaf people’s experiences in World War II by writing about the life of Hanna Holmes, a deaf woman of Japanese descent who was incarcerated with her family in a US internment camp during this period. Holmes was a child at the time, and her story is one that exposes the ineptness of the US government in ensuring educational access for her at the camp and the racism she faced outside it. For reasons not given, four schools for deaf people—in Colorado, California, Pennsylvania, and the Kendall School at Gallaudet University—rejected the government’s attempts to place her and other deaf children from internment camps into their schools. She moved with her family to Illinois and, facing anti-Japanese hostility at an oral school in Chicago, finally relocated to the Illinois School for the Deaf. Holmes’s story is known because she testified before the Congressional Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, was interviewed by an oral-history project, and gave testimony in a lawsuit to redress the treatment of victims of the wartime relocation. In short, her experiences were uncovered because, as a deaf person, she provided a perspective on a historical event that was different from those of other participants. Thus are deaf stories also of interest to a larger public. Hanna Holmes was discriminated against by the US government and faced prejudice from institutions and individuals because she was of Japanese descent and because she was deaf. Kim A. Silva’s article uses oral-history methods to examine a popular story in the American deaf community that gives a deaf dimension to the Amistad affair. This case involved fifty-three Africans who revolted aboard a slave ship and won back their freedom via a case argued by John Quincy Adams at the US Supreme Court. Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, pioneers of deaf education in the United States, were called upon to serve as gestural “interpreters” between the Africans and the US authorities when the ship first docked in the United States. The Africans, who were of the Mende people, also visited the

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American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford, Connecticut. According to one story, the students were able to easily communicate with the Africans. However, the role of sign language was quickly overtaken by spoken language, with the actual trial interpreted from spoken English into spoken Mende. What is unusual about this article is that it relies heavily on what could be called folklore: stories handed down from one  generation to another. Silva uses the methodological criterion of an oral historian: that an oral history must have an “unbroken series of witnesses” in order to be credible. She traces the genealogy of this story back to the nineteenth century through recollections carried from ASD teachers and staff to students, who then took on employment at the school. In addition to broadening our understanding of deaf lives, these articles by Palenny, Davidenko, Ely, and Silva illuminate unknown aspects of larger historical events: the deaf experience in various arenas during and after World War II and during the abolitionist movement. Telling Deaf Lives also includes autobiographical pieces. ­Ulla-Bell Thorin is a deaf Swedish woman who has written six books, and among her primary motivations has been “the importance of deaf people telling their own stories in their own words.”11 Five of her six books are autobiographical, and the sixth is a fictional narrative about a deaf woman. Thorin’s article is testimony to the struggles and strength of a deaf ­woman in twentieth-century Sweden. Tony Landon McGregor contributes an artistic autobiography that explores the De’VIA themes in his own artwork. Of particular interest is how his work developed alongside deaf mentors, from a deaf schoolteacher in his youth to i­nformal mentoring by established deaf artists such as Chuck Baird and Betty Miller. Not only artists but also deaf patrons such as curators and ­critics contributed to McGregor’s development. McGregor shows us how membership in the Deaf community can be a boon to individual deaf lives. All of the contributions in this volume go beyond written archival documents to draw upon an innovative range of sources available in sign language: oral histories collected by professional and community historians, folklore, family memories handed down through the generations, and autobiographical recollections. What these sources highlight is the richness of historical texts in sign language for understanding

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the varied experiences of deaf people. Fortunately, we have means of ­accessing these histories. Diana Moore and Joan Naturale show the rich array of written and video sources available to scholars of Deaf history through Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) libraries. However, Marc-André Bernier reminds us that the personal documents of today’s deaf people are often in “borndigital” format, which presents its own challenges for the preservation of Deaf history. He also encourages readers to preserve their own histories. Veronica Bickle, Jennifer Paul, and Bob Paul take another perspective on history, sharing their experience with writing historical fiction about deaf people. Their novel, The Vineyarders, is situated around the experiences of deaf people on Martha’s Vineyard in the late nineteenth century, and the writers clearly elucidate the challenges facing authors of fictionalized accounts of well-known historical figures and events. These stories narrate a diverse range of deaf lives. While an overarching thread is an intention to relate the experiences of deaf people, another commonality is worth noting. We should not lose sight of the profoundly optimistic orientation of these stories. Uncovering and sharing histories of deaf people are ways of affirming a belief that learning and change are possible and that, by sharing one’s stories, one can spark understanding that will better the lives of deaf people and ultimately lead to a more just society. Ballin wrote of the desire to remedy the “wrongs inflicted” on deaf people; these stories continue that tradition. In sharing the histories and narratives of deaf lives, this book ensures that Ballin’s howl is not forgotten and that the stories of deaf people continue to be told.

Notes   1. Jack Gannon, “Birth of Deaf History International,” Deaf History International 1, no. 1 (1993): 1.   2. Joseph Amato, Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 3–5.   3. Joseph J. Murray, “Coequality and Transnational Studies: Understanding Deaf Lives,” in Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking, ed. H-Dirksen L. Bauman (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), 100–10.   4. Lang, this volume.

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  5. Anderson and Carty, this volume.   6. Robarge, this volume.   7. Ibid.   8. Albert V. Ballin, The Deaf-Mute Howls (1931; repr., Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1998), 1.   9. Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood (Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2003), 329. 10. Palenny, this volume. 11. Thorin, this volume.

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Part 1

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Autobiographies

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On Writing My Story as Deaf History

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Ulla-Bell Thorin

As the author of six books, I can point to many motivating factors that first led me to start writing. In this chapter I share with you my reasons for writing and also a few stories from some of my books. What motivated me to start writing books? First of all, I really enjoy writing, and I think it is a great thing to do. My mother, too, was a writer. Her name was Astrid Pettersson, and she wrote around twenty books in total, some of which I helped her transcribe. Thanks to her, I learned a lot about the creative process of writing and how to go about publishing one’s books, and she also helped me develop my written language (figure 1). When my father died, my doctor encouraged me to start writing down my own stories. Over the course of several years, I gathered notes and contemplated whether my vocabulary was good enough and whether I would have the courage to publish my texts. I am well aware of my shortcomings when it comes to the Swedish language, but still I have had the confidence to write these books on my own rather than having someone else do it for me, and I think that is a very important thing for deaf people.

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figure 1. Ulla-Bell’s mother, author Astrid Pettersson.

This leads to my second motivation for writing: the importance of deaf people telling their own stories in their own words. When you are deaf, you can, of course, sign your stories, but the signs quickly fade away, whereas the written words remain for others to read. In actual fact, very few deaf people have written books. Although the number of deaf authors has been increasing in this century, there were very few during the twentieth century. For a long time I have been wondering why this is the case when so many stories are waiting to be told. One needs to ask who really has the ability and knowledge needed to write about the ­history of deaf people and their language. I have always felt that deaf people are better suited to tell their own stories and that it is frustrating when hearing people write about deaf people, for deaf people. I also feel strongly about documenting the life of deaf people from a historical perspective, as our history is something that most people do not know much about. For this reason, my initial thoughts when I started writing centered on the fact that very few deaf people have written with the intent of telling their own individual stories and how they perceived their upbringing. That is why I started to write about my preschool years, my language, and the lack of communication between my family and me when I came home from school for the weekend. As a young child, I did not have a language until I learned to sign at the age of two. I was very fortunate to live in a place where I had an opportunity to go to a sign language preschool. Other deaf children at

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figure 2. Ulla-Bell Thorin’s first novel, Deprived of Language, published in 1993.

this time often had “seven white years”: years without a language. My first book, Deprived of Language (Thorin 1993), is based on my time at preschool and my life at home with my family during the Second World War (figure 2). During these years I had a truly wonderful teacher named Alma, who communicated with us in sign language. She taught us to read by having us place a card with a word on it next to the corresponding image on the wall. For me personally, this was the best way of learning: by combining sign language with written Swedish (figure 3). I remember one time when the children from the preschool were invited home to my parents’ farm in the rural area south of Gothenburg. During this visit, we were to learn how to make cheese. There were about twenty-five of us helping my father move fifty-liter containers of milk from the barn to the house. We counted the drops of cheese rennet that were poured into the milk, which was boiling on the wood stove. During the entire process, our teacher, Alma, taught us new signs for the concept of cheese making and also for cows and their stomachs. We took the cheese back with us to the school and turned it every day until that year’s Christmas party. To this day I can still remember how good it tasted! The lack of communication between my parents and me made life difficult at times. Once when I came home from school, I knew beforehand that a new baby brother would be waiting for me. When I came

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figure 3. The preschool for deaf children in Gothenburg in the early 1940s.

home, I immediately ran in to see the little baby sleeping, wrapped in a red blanket. I leaned over and gave him a kiss and thought he looked so beautiful while sleeping. Suddenly my mother was there, pulling me away and shoving me against the wall. She looked scared, angry, and nervous. My head hurt, and I couldn’t understand why she was so angry with me. When the weekend was over, I went back to school, where Alma tried to explain to me, using sign language, that my little brother was dead. I had a hard time grasping what she meant, but during the funeral it dawned on me as I watched my father and grandfather bury my brother in a white coffin. I finally understood my mother’s tears and the fact that my little brother was never coming back. The fact that the situation could not be explained to me in sign language until several days after this incident with my mother was very upsetting. My second book, Deprived of Love (Thorin 1995), is about a little girl just like me, who must travel far away from home in order to attend a school for deaf children. After preschool, in 1945, I started first grade at the School for the Deaf in Vänersborg, on the west coast of Sweden. I traveled by train and arrived at the school alone, without my parents. Upon my arrival, the principal of the school struck me on the shoulder with his cane to force me to go into the school office and register. Quite a welcome for a seven-year-old girl! After a while, the principal hit me again. I thought this meant that I should leave the office, but I was stopped by yet another blow. The principal was standing behind me with a piece of paper in front of his mouth, talking, in order to find out how well I could hear his voice. I couldn’t hear anything, and I was hit

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On Writing My Story as Deaf History  :  7

again to let me know that I could leave the room. I started to cry, and my shoulder hurt for several days afterward. During my preschool years, I was very happy and fortunate to have been given a language, and, in a way, these were the happiest five years of my life. Things changed when I came to the School for the Deaf in Vänersborg, where sign language was strictly forbidden. The curriculum was totally centered around lipreading and speaking. It was a shocking experience at first, but I still managed to make some wonderful friends, and, fortunately, we were allowed to use sign language in our spare time, so we could communicate and practice signing then. I spent only one year at the school, as my mother wanted me to attend a different one. My third book, Tears of Thorn (Thorin 1998), is based on the period of my life when I moved to a different school, even farther away from home. This was also a school for deaf children, in Örebro, in the middle of Sweden. Only here, things got even worse. Sign language was forbidden not only during school hours but also in the foster home where I lived. Still, I tried to use it as much as I could. I stayed at that school for seven years and never really liked it. The principal at the School for the Deaf in Örebro was proficient in sign language and was at times hired as an interpreter in the outside community. I didn’t even know he knew any sign language until after I had left school! I was at a lecture that he gave in Växjö, and I was astonished by his use of signs. I went up to him afterward and angrily told him, “I will never forgive you for as long as I live.” He simply asked me, “Why?” I replied, “You can sign!” He then told me that he had been afraid of losing his job since sign language was forbidden at the school. As I mentioned earlier, the seven years at the Örebro school were dominated by speech training, learning lipreading, and hearing tests. With regard to academic education, I wasn’t given what I actually needed. I feel that the state deceived parents by taking over the parental role and making deaf students leave home to come to school. When they went home to be with their parents during breaks, the children were then expected to speak perfectly. But in reality, communication never went smoothly since the parents didn’t know how to sign (figure 4). After writing these books about my time at preschool and the schools for deaf children, I took a break from writing about my c­ hildhood. That’s

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figure 4. Ulla-Bell (right) with her sister and brother.

when I wrote a book called My Interpretation of Interpreting, which in various ways I had been working on for almost thirty years. In it I gathered all of my experiences related to interpreting and interviewed many sign language interpreters. At this time, there were no organizations for interpreters. A lot more can be written about the topic, enough for a sequel. However, at the time I felt that writing this one book was enough for me. For my fifth book, Worthy of Respect (Thorin 2005), I returned to school life. Out of all the books I have written, this is my favorite, and I often give lectures about it. It depicts a school for deaf girls in Växjö, which one could attend after the eight mandatory years in one of the five Swedish schools for deaf students. It tells the story of the girls who went to the school, their teachers, and what they did in their spare time. The school was in operation from 1938 until 1970, after which there were better educational opportunities for young deaf people. I personally thought the school was all right, but in a sense it was also a prison of sorts for the young women. Essentially, they were taught how to be a good housewife and were prepared for married life. During all the years that the school for deaf girls in Växjö was in existence, it had the same principal, Carin Lagerberg-Bergstrand. She was quite hard on us, and I never really liked her. Over those years, a total of 740 girls enrolled in the school, which had a mandatory two-year program unless you could verify that you had been employed, in which case you could leave after only one year. After a year at the school, most girls found jobs and moved back to their hometowns. You could also attend a third and fourth year at the school,

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On Writing My Story as Deaf History  :  9

during which the curriculum focused on vocational training. Many of the girls who quit after two years struggled to succeed in the job market due to their lack of skills. Many of the girls felt forced to marry for security and stability. This is why I chose the title Worthy of Respect for my book about these young women. I respect and hold in great esteem each and every one of the girls who had the courage to move far away from their families in order to attend that school. The number of pupils was at a high from 1953 to 1956. It then declined to only seven students in 1970, after which the school was shut down. I personally spent three years at the school, and I wrote Worthy of Respect because it represents an era that I don’t think many young deaf people in Sweden today know much about. While at the school for deaf girls, I went home to see my family during breaks, and the communication between my mother and me improved a little, but my parents still did not use sign language. During these breaks, my father and I would often say only two things to each other: “Good day” and “Good-bye.” I loved my father very much; he was a good father, and it made me really sad that we could not communicate well. I found it hard to lip-read when he spoke, and he did not articulate very well, either. My last book to date, With Your Head Held High (Thorin 2007), is about a girl who leaves school in Växjö to look for work. She ends up working in a garment factory, unable to get any other work due to her poor grades. At the factory, she falls in love with a hearing foreman. She subsequently gives birth to twins, but the father is not her newfound love. Instead, the children are the result of her having been raped by the priest for deaf people, for whom she had previously worked as a housekeeper. While writing this sixth book I suffered a stroke, which affected my vision. Since then I have taken a long break from writing, but the urge to write has made me start on my seventh book. The title of the book is still a secret, but it is going to be about sign language. Wise from experience, I am not sure whether I have the courage to publish this book. The marketing aspect of book publishing is very demanding, and I feel that I am not good at it. Maybe this is why my books have not always been as successful as I have hoped. While publishing my books over the years, at times I have struggled with my self-confidence and my Swedish. I have fought hard to

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write  and publish the books, and in the end I am proud that I have ­managed to do so in spite of poor marketing. Unfortunately, my books are not available in English. As much as I have wanted them to be, it has proven more difficult than I imagined. I am, however, still very happy and proud of the fact that some of my books are available to buy and to be borrowed from libraries. When I started writing, I used a manual typewriter while transcribing some of my mother’s books. I then bought my own typewriter, which wore out. My second typewriter weighed almost ten kilograms. I later got a clumsy, old computer. Things have really changed, and nowadays I have a modern, flat-screen computer, but it is far from my best friend. In fact, I sometimes hate it. I would still prefer a good old electric typewriter! My books were published by different publishers. The same deaf publisher published the first two books. The publisher of the third book was also deaf, whereas the remaining books have hearing publishers. Nowadays I have a hard time trusting publishing companies since they seem to pop up everywhere like mushrooms. It is also difficult to know which ones are reliable and have reasonable costs and a good attitude toward deaf people. Writing will probably never make me rich, but I am still happy that I have managed to publish six books, and doing so has always been my main objective. I hope that my books will provide valuable insight into the lives of deaf people at a time when circumstances were very different from those confronting deaf people today.

References Thorin, Ulla-Bell. Berövad Kärlek. Växjö, Sweden: Förlaget Hony, 1994. . Berövat Språk. Växjö, Sweden: Förlaget Hony, 1993. . Med Högburet Huvud. Gothenburg, Sweden: B4 Press, 2007. . Tolktrubbel. Harplinge, Sweden: Neas Förlag, 2003. . Törnetårar. Malmö, Sweden: Döviana, 1998. . Värda Respekt. Harplinge, Sweden: Neas Förlag, 2005.

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Reflections on Biographical ­Research and Writing

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Harry G. Lang

Over the past few decades of research in the field of Deaf history, ­biographical writing has evolved into a powerful genre that has helped us ­reconstruct our past, understand our place as deaf1 people today, and shape our future. This essay briefly summarizes my journey of ­discovery as a deaf biographer over a period of thirty years and describes how ­ biography has developed my worldview, interpreted pragmati­ cally as a framework of ideas and beliefs used to interact with the world. ­Biographies and ­autobiographies in Deaf history have demonstrated a wide range of approaches, emphases, and purposes. There are histori­ cal, ­literary, ­reference, and even fictional biographies. Biographers may also have particular interests that include sociopolitical constructs such as audism, ­ marginalization, and the promotion of multiculturalism. ­Alternately, they may be interested in the enhancement of self-efficacy in a younger deaf readership—the belief that being deaf should not be a barrier to ­success in any field of endeavor.

1. The term “deaf ” refers to both deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

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Biographical research can also shed new light on the experience of deaf people in history and may lead to the integration of knowledge into a worldview—a personal construct that may be different for each biogra­ pher. The extent to which biographical research may actually ­influence a writer’s own personality has not been adequately investigated. In a sense, this summary of such a worldview is autobiographical by nature—it is based on personal experiences in the realm of research and writing. My interest in biography began when I was a teenager studying at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD) in Pittsburgh. I had my heart set on becoming a scientist, but I had never read about any deaf person in science. Fifty years ago my worldview regarding deafness was very limited by the scarcity of Deaf studies resources. My teachers, like the local librarians, knew of no material related to deaf scientists, and no one knew of a living deaf scientist whom I might contact. Consequently, I began studying physics in college with considerable uncertainty. After graduating from college, I continued to teach physics at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Then, in 1984, as president of an organization called the Science Association for Persons with Disabilities, I had the special honor to meet the British theoretical physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking (figure 1). The chance exchange we had in Boston one day was the impetus for my biographical writing. As a physicist myself, I admired Dr. Hawking’s ­perseverance as a scientist paralyzed by disease and respected all that

figure 1. Dr. Stephen Hawking (seated) and Dr. Harry Lang (right) at a m ­ eeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984. In the center is an ASL interpreter. Hawking’s assistant is in the upper left.

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Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing  :  13

he had accomplished. During our meeting I was taken aback when he looked at me and said, through my ASL interpreter, “It must be difficult to be deaf.” This brief conversation made me start wondering about the roles such attitudes have played in influencing the education and em­ ployment of deaf men and women in science. Soon after this personal encounter I embarked on a nearly three-­ decade-long quest to examine the experience of deaf people in history. At first I f­ocused on the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathe­ matics, medicine, and invention. One by one I discovered several thou­ sand deaf men and women who had different ages of onset, a variety of etiologies, lived during different periods in history, communicated in many ­diverse ways, and yet found remarkable strategies to overcome communi­ cation and attitudinal challenges to contribute meaningfully to their fields. In my first book, Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science (1994), I used biography to emphasize that there has been a continuous and impressive presence of deaf people in the history of one discipline—science. But over the years I followed other paths in conducting research and writing biographies. Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary (Lang and Meath-Lang 1995) contains 151 biographical sketches and focuses on the contributions of deaf people in a variety of disciplines. In A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell (Lang 2000), biographical tidbits about many individuals blend into a single story about service to a community with a goal—the ninety-year battle for telephone access. During this journey there were also various skirmishes with book publishers. I learned many lessons about the precautions that need to be taken when one is depending on secondary sources; the dangers of using the World Wide Web as a resource; and the challenges of writing full-length biographies of living deaf legends Robert R. Davila (Lang, Cohen, and Fischgrund 2007) and Robert F. Panara (Lang, 2007a). These dangers were summarized in a paper titled “Reflections on Bio­ graphical Research and Writing” (Lang, 2007b). While I was working on Silence of the Spheres, one story about a young deaf astronomer named John Goodricke introduced a meta­ phor that had a profound influence on my subsequent books. In the late eighteenth century Goodricke had observed what would later be called a ­“binary star” system (figure 2). Born deaf (or possibly deafened in early

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14

:

Harry G. Lang

figure 2. John Goodricke (left) was one of several thousand deaf and hard of hearing women and men in the history of science who were discovered through research. Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. At right is an artist’s conception of a binary star system, two worlds that share material and energy, which became a metaphor for my worldview. Photograph courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.

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infancy), this young man had studied at the Braidwood Academy in Edinburgh. He was only a teenager when he discovered variable stars, and for this work he was awarded the Copley Medal in 1783. The metaphor that became an element of my worldview focused on the notion of how deaf men and women in history lived to various de­ grees in two worlds, sharing their time and energy between these worlds as they pursued their scientific work. As I wrote in 1994: I look one last time tonight into the vast expanse of space. Far out there is Beta Lyrae—two worlds orbiting one another. To me there is something wonderful about binary stars. Two worlds which share energy. Yet, usually one star in the pair is larger and brighter and it overwhelms the retina of human vision. To the unaided eye, these two stars appear as one. In the darkness, as the breeze blows softly, I think about the worlds of hearing and deaf persons. Different worlds. Com­ panion worlds. To the unaided student of the history of science these worlds, too, appear as one. (Lang 1994, xiii–xiv)

It became a goal, then, not only to distinguish these worlds but also to show the struggle and strategies deaf people used to share energy between the different spheres where they participated. This notion, including the astronomical metaphor, kept surfacing. For example, when researching the deaf physicist Robert H. Weitbrecht, I found a letter he had written

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Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing  :  15

to his codeveloper of the TTY modem, James C. Marsters. “I was a pretty lonely star gazer,” he wrote, “moving in the void between the galaxy of the hearing people and the galaxy of the deaf people” (Lang 2000, 148). A second element of the worldview developed from biographical ­research was derived from the realization of how much we take for granted with regard to the roles deaf people played in developing the things we enjoy in life. It was Vinton Cerf, now known as the “Father of the ­Internet,” who wrote a 1978 article in the American Annals of the Deaf regarding “a new communication tool” that he called “The Electronic Mailbox” (Cerf 1978). Because of the protocol he developed, we now use email on a ­daily basis. Similarly, Thomas Alva Edison improved the light bulb, which ­allows people today to read and communicate at night much more ­easily than our predecessors did with candles. Thanks to this deaf inventor, we also have motion picture films. And each time I watch a rocket blast into space, I think of the pioneer Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, the “Father of ­Astronautics.” This Russian felt “isolated, humiliated—an outcast,” yet he attributed the increased power of concentration to his deafness. It helped him, he wrote, “to withdraw deep within myself, to pursue great goals” (Lang 1994; Lang and Meath-Lang 1995). In March 2012, during my first year of retirement after forty-one years of teaching, I took, for the first time, a photograph of the moon. Most peo­ ple would recognize the lunar craters in this photograph as having been formed by either volcanic activity or meteorites striking the moon’s surface. But biographical research has for me given new meaning to this picture. At least ten of these craters on the moon, Venus, and Mars are named for deaf men and women who made significant contributions throughout history ­ dinger” on Venus was named for Tilly (figure 3). As an example, “Crater E Edinger, a woman who hid from the Nazis in a museum for many months. Her brother was killed in a concentration camp, and she was fortunate to escape Germany during the Holocaust. Deafened as a teenager, she went on to become one of the foremost experts on horse fossils, a subject she had become fascinated with while reading by candlelight in the darkened museum. Each of the craters named for deaf people represents a unique life story. So, too, does the minor planet named for John Goodricke, the comet named for the deaf Norwegian Olaf Hassel, and thousands of stars that were discovered and/or classified by deaf astronomers.

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figure 3. Through biographical research it was found that at least ten of the ­craters on Earth’s moon, as well as on Venus and Mars, were named in honor of deaf people for their contributions to science and the humanities.

But this worldview, which includes a sense of pride in the accom­ plishments of these women and men in history, is by no means limited to astronomy. As a scientist, I found the natural world to be rich with such stories. When I look out at my gardens, I think about how many plants have been named for deaf people in honor of their work in botany and horticulture. Lesquerella, for example, a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae, is named in honor of Leo Lesquereux, the Swiss American “father of North American paleobotany” (Lyons, Morey, and Wagner 1995). Hughesia reginae is a plant genus named in honor of ­Regina Olsen Hughes, a deaf botanical illustrator. There are many more. In entomology, which is the study of insects, the remarkable adven­ tures of many deaf men and women can be found. They, too, were hon­ ored for their work in this science. Cassida alpina Bremi-Wolf, named for Johann Jacob Bremi-Wolf, was one of many insects he studied and classified. His sketchbook included fifty-four sheets of colored drawings of butterflies, beetles, caterpillars, and other insects, most with  hand­ written legends. Additionally, he wrote poetry. “I’m deaf!” Bremi-Wolf exclaimed in one of his poems, “Yet, I will not grieve. I know from whence fate comes. God deemed it well to take from me this sense and knows what good will come from it” (Lang and Santiago-Blay 2012). There is the exciting story of a deaf man who helped the eminent Charles Darwin during the famous voyage of the HMS Beagle. Syms Covington was a cabin boy on the ship. Hard of hearing when he first met Darwin, he lost much more of his hearing from firing rifles while

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Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing  :  17

collecting specimens for Darwin. They became lifelong friends, and Darwin even bought him an ear trumpet. Deaf people have discovered chemical elements. A deaf person de­ termined the source of typhus fever, saving tens of thousands of lives. Deaf people have won Nobel Prizes and discovered important scientific principles, and they have played equally important roles in the history of the humanities. I am often asked whether the people I have studied were ­“really deaf.” The question is a very contemporary one, and there are no e­ conomical answers. Deaf people in history, as today, represent a huge range of ­degrees of deafness, ages of onset, causes of deafness, types of schooling, and relationship to communities. There are many ways to be deaf, and, collectively, these people are part of our heritage. As examined through biographical research, the experience of deaf people in history holds much power for better understanding our own world. As an example, we have all read about the conflicts ­arising from the oralists’ efforts to ban the use of sign language. This “war of ­methods” has gone on for centuries and still rages today. However, ­during my ­research for the book A Phone of Our Own, I learned that it was three oral deaf men who developed the modem, which finally brought ­telephone access to the Deaf world. Importantly, they knew they could not d ­ isseminate this technology on their own. It was during a ­convention of oralists in 1964 that Robert Weitbrecht, James C. Marsters, and Andrew Saks ­invited ­National Association of the Deaf (NAD) presi­ dent Robert Sanderson and vice president Jess Smith to a demonstration of the ­visual telephone-teletypewriter system, or TTY. An organization was then ­established with a signing president (Smith) and an oral vice ­president (H. Latham Breunig) to develop a national deaf network to promote deaf people’s ­access to the telephone. This was the first signifi­ cant step ­toward the broad telecommunications access we now enjoy with our pagers, email, and videophones. Sanderson wrote a letter to me about how sad it was that the oral and the signing communities could not work together in education as they had in telecommunications. This story provides a powerful mes­ sage about respecting differences in language and culture and effecting real change in society as a result.

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18  :  Harry G. Lang

Through biographical research we also learn many things that broaden our thinking about deaf people as human beings. Edmund Booth is a deaf icon. In the nineteenth century he was regarded as one of the best signers in the United States and as the “honored Nestor” of the American Deaf community (Lang 2004). Yet he had sought a cure for his deafness. So, too, did the revered Laurent Clerc contemplate the possibility of a cure. Others, like Laura Redden, a distinguished poet and journalist, saw value in taking speech lessons after many years of never using her voice. They were human. Biographical research also teaches us that we deaf people have a “dark side” to our history, as in the case of the historian and writer ­Heinrich von Treitschke, who became deaf at a young age. His anti-­Semitic writ­ ings later fell into the hands of Adolph Hitler, who found them ­inspiring (Lang and Meath-Lang 1995). These and many other facts discovered through biographical research help us reflect intelligently on our deaf predecessors. As an educator, I also experimented for almost thirty years with signing biographies. For this I used the theater-in-education approach (TIE), which was introduced to me by my wife, Bonnie Meath-Lang. ­Using a fictional “time machine,” I “brought back” both hearing and deaf characters from history and interviewed them in front of various audiences, including graduate classes in a course titled “History of Deaf Educational Thought and Practice,” professional development work­ shops in university settings, and the Convention of American Instruc­ tors of the Deaf. The characters that I interviewed included, for example, Edward Miner Gallaudet, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, Alexander Graham Bell, Anne Sullivan Macy, Laurent Clerc, and Edmund Booth (figure 4). The approach required extensive reading by the actors, who needed to be prepared for a variety of questions. There are many other forms of theater in education. As an educator, I chose this format and found great value in comparing the art of acting with the art of writing. In formal theater, too, we see how artists, writers, actors, and directors interpret the lives of deaf individuals through sign language as a means of appreciating our culture and heritage. During the three hundredth anniversary of the Abbé de l’Épée in 2012, I was happy to see that commemorative performances took place around the world.

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Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing  :  19

figure 4. Theater in Education: Laurent Clerc, portrayed by Patrick Graybill, a deaf actor, describes his experiences as a student at the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris to “time machine” scientist Harry G. Lang.

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Conclusion Through biography we reconstruct our pasts, continue our heritage, and construct our future. As an educator, as I presented in schools for deaf children around the country, I quickly saw the positive impact of sharing biographies. Teachers asked the children what they had learned from my presentations, and in their written reactions I saw surprise and inspiration. I also presented to parents, and the workshop evaluations showed that the biographies were influencing them as they guided their chil­ dren in their education. “Those deaf predecessors . . . send a message of encouragement and inspiration to all of us,” wrote one parent. “As a mother of a child that is deaf, I felt hope and pride for my son. I had a sense of validation and promise that my son, Aaron, could truly do anything he wanted.” Biographies can also serve as agents of change. A deaf woman once wrote to me that she was not accepted by a university because the offi­ cials did not believe she was capable of doing science. She showed them my book Silence of the Spheres, which features many deaf women in the history of science. The graduate committee changed its decision and ­accepted her as a student in the master’s degree program in neurosci­ ence. She later completed a doctorate at the same university. There is an enduring value in biography. From my own worldview, the characters I have researched have shown the courage and ­spirit

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20  :  Harry G. Lang

to find ways to go over, under, and around barriers in attitudes and ­communication. As Thomas Carlyle has written, our “history” is “the es­ sence of innumerable biographies.” These life stories provide an aid to in­ terpreting our current life experiences and have the potential to be agents of change by enhancing the lives of future generations of deaf people.

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References Cerf, Vinton. “The Electronic Mailbox: A New Communication Tool for the Hearing Impaired.” American Annals of the Deaf 123 (1978): 768–72. Lang, Harry G. Edmund Booth, Deaf Pioneer. Washington, DC: Gallaudet ­University Press, 2004. . A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell. ­Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2000. . “Reflections on Biographical Research and Writing.” Sign Language Studies 7(2) (2007a): 141–51. . Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 1994. . Teaching from the Heart and Soul: The Life and Work of Robert F. P ­ anara. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2007b. Harry G. Lang, Oscar Cohen, and Joseph Fischgrund. Moments of Truth: The Journey of Robert R. Davila, Deaf Educator. Rochester, NY: RIT Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2007. Also published in Spanish in 2011 as Momentos decisivos: La historia de un lider sordo. Lang, Harry G., and Bonnie Meath-Lang. Deaf Persons in the Arts and S­ ciences: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995. Lang, Harry G., and Jorge A. Santiago-Blay. “Contributions of Deaf People to Entomology: A Hidden Legacy.” Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews 5 (2012): 223–68. Lyons, Paul C., Elsie Darrah Morey, and Robert H. Wagner. Historical ­Perspective of Early Twentieth-Century Carboniferous Paleobotany in North America: In Memory of William Culp Darrah. Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America, 1995, vii.

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Part 2

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Biographies of Deaf Pioneers

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t

Finding the Connections: Educated Deaf People in England in the Mid-Seventeenth Century

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Peter Jackson

I chose this topic because of my fascination with stories of deaf education, as formal deaf education did not start in Britain, France, or G ­ ermany ­until the mid-to-late eighteenth century. I never believed that there were no deaf persons ­without any form of education who lived in Britain prior to the start of ­Braidwood’s Academy in Edinburgh. At that time, famous ­British ­academics like Dr. John Wallis also conducted widespread studies of ­chirology (the study of sign language) and all things linked to deafness. The starting point for my research was John Bulwer’s Philocophus, or,  the Deafe and Dumbe Mans Friend, published in 1648, which mentions the names of twenty-five deaf people who could lip-read, read, and write. The key name mentioned in Bulwer’s book was Sir Edward ­Gostwicke (1620–1671), to whom the book is dedicated. Gostwicke also had a ­brother, ­William. ­Bulwer states that the Gostwicke brothers were excellent ­lip-readers and were able to write. Other people who were living at the time

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24 : Peter Jackson

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Sir Edward Gostwicke

and kept ­diaries (such as Samuel Pepys) noted that the ­Gostwickes communicated very well by “signes” (the use of sign language was c­ ommonly spelled in Old E ­ nglish in this form). However, I was unable to find any trace of documents ­allegedly written by the ­Gostwicke brothers ­anywhere in the various British archives, including the National Archives. So, their ability to read and write could not be proven, and research about the Gostwicke brothers was reluctantly shelved. But this research did uncover interesting facts about other deaf people whose ability to read and write could be proven. In the years 1650–1660 most people in Europe did not go to school and could not read and write. Only about one in every hundred p ­ ersons living at that time was literate. Priests or sons of rich people who went

Sir John Gaudy

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Finding the Connections  :  25

to the university and became lawyers or had any form of employment that required them to read and write were the exceptions. Therefore, Deaf people from the 1650s who could be proven to be literate were unique. I was able to find three such individuals living between 1650 and 1670, and these I researched in depth. Fortunately, the British ­National ­Archives and other archives near where these individuals had resided contained considerable material about them. These three Deaf people were Sir John Gaudy (1639–1708) and his younger brother ­Framlingham (1642–1673), who lived in the English county of ­Norfolk, and Alexander ­Popham (1648–1707), who grew up in the English ­county of Berkshire but lived most of the latter part of his life in the county of Gloucestershire.

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The Gaudy Brothers Sir John and Framlingham Gaudy were part of the extended Gawdy f­ amily of lawyers, parliamentarians, and physicians that left thousands of documents to be preserved in the British National Archives. These documents tell of the day-to-day routines of family members, thus enabling a fasci­ nating picture to be painted of family life in rural England in the seventeenth century. Sir John and Framlingham, as well as their s­ ister and descendants, preferred to spell their last name as “Gaudy” to distance themselves from other branches of the Gawdy family who fought in the English Civil War of 1641–1645 between those who supported Parliament (known as Parliamentarians) and those who supported the king (known as Royalists). Those who ­supported the king lost most of their wealth and estates at the war’s end, but the ­Gaudys retained most of theirs. The Gawdy documents in the National Archives contain several references to how the Gaudy brothers, along with their hearing sister, learned to read and write from the local parish priest, John Cressner, who was also a teacher. Together with the priest’s two sons and another boy who was the son of a tenant farmer on the Gaudy estate, the Gaudy children formed a “class” of children who were all roughly the same age within the priest’s own house. Additionally, the priest managed to ­acquire a book (called a “most remarkable book” by the Gaudy ­children’s uncle), which he used to teach sign language to both the deaf and the

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26 : Peter Jackson

hearing children. The ­children learned sign language so well that the youngest Cressner boy, Henry, who later became the parish priest when his father died, also became Sir John’s interpreter and scribe, helping to manage the Gaudy estate. When John and Framlingham were respectively aged sixteen and ­fifteen, they were sent to study painting at Sir Peter Lely’s art school, where they were mentored by one of Lely’s tutors, George Freeman. Freeman was said in Bulwer’s Philocophus to have two deaf daughters who could read and write. The two girls, who were at least ten years ­older than the Gaudy boys, used sign language with their father. It ­therefore seemed logical that the two boys should board with the Freeman family while at art school, thereby exposing them to a signing environment. After the death of his father in 1669, John acceded to the baronetcy and painted only for amusement, but proof that he could read and write comes from the fact that he fought and won two court cases in London’s Chancery Court and also left three letters among the family documents in the National Archives. Framlingham was more of a social person than Sir John (as he was now known). Whereas the latter preferred to stay at home in ­rural ­Norfolk, Framlingham preferred to live in London, where he would get together with his Deaf and nondeaf friends. He was much loved by the people who knew him. Only when he contracted a severe a­ ttack of smallpox, which was prevalent in the seventeenth century, did ­Framlingham return home to Norfolk after spending six years in L ­ ondon. He never properly recovered from the smallpox and never married. People who wrote about Framlingham mention several times that he used to ­carry pencil and p ­ aper with him to help him to communicate with hearing people that he encountered. These writings are probably the first references to the way deaf people use pen and paper as a means of communication. Framlingham Gaudy left one of the greatest legacies to Deaf history: His will, dated May 2, 1672, written in excellent English and beautiful cursive script, is the earliest known will confirmed to have been written by a Deaf person. We know that Framlingham wrote it because it is authenticated on the back by a notary public as being in the handwriting of Framlingham Gaudy.

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Finding the Connections  :  27

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The will of Framlingham Gaudy

Alexander Popham The third individual researched was Alexander Popham, who was born to Colonel Edward Popham, one of Oliver Cromwell’s generals-at-sea. ­(Cromwell did not use the term “admiral,” considering this to be a ­Royalist ­title.) Alexander’s father died when Alexander was only three years old, and the family, consisting of his mother and five-year-old sister, Letitia, moved to live with Edward Popham’s brother at the vast country estate of Littlecote House in Berkshire. By then the f­amily knew that Alexander was deaf. ­Alexander’s uncle was Colonel ­Alexander ­Popham, a wealthy Parliamentarian. Colonel Popham had eight ­children and employed governesses who ­encouraged the children to play at reading, writing, and learning about

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The authentication of the Gaudy will

things in general; thus by the time ­Alexander was about ten or eleven years old, he was said to be expert “in the use of the pencil.” It has also been recorded that Alexander developed his own form of sign language around this time, which he used with his family and servants on the estate. His family, however, felt it was important that he learn to talk because, when he became an adult, he would come into possession of his dead father’s numerous properties and estates, which he would need to manage. The family therefore engaged a doctor of divinity, William Holder, to teach Alexander to speak. Holder took advantage of Alexander’s ­ability to read, write, and sign to teach him how to enunciate certain syllables and words, as the following excerpt illustrates: “Write down on paper a P and B, and make signes to him to endeavour to produce [them].” However, Alexander was not with Holder for long because in 1659 Holder took up a new post as a canon at Ely Cathedral, which meant he had to leave the area. After a gap of about eighteen months, the ­family ­succeeded in getting a new teacher for Alexander. This was another ­doctor of divinity, John Wallis, who found that Alexander had “forgotten much of what he had been taught [by Holder].” Like Holder, W ­ allis took advantage of the boy’s ability to read and write, but his methods were very different. What Wallis did was to write numerous pages in a small o ­ ctavo-sized pocketbook in fine

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Finding the Connections  :  29

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William Holder

John Wallis

handwriting, covering many different subjects in ­detailed lists of vocabulary for items such as parts of the body (back, breast, belly) and grammatical phrases and sentences such as “a sheep hath wool on his back.” Speech training was not forgotten, and to ensure that Popham would remember how to pronounce certain words, Wallis created several pages on phonetics, thus becoming the first person to use symbols to represent speech sounds in the English language. (It was not until 1867 that Alexander Melville Bell introduced a system of more precise notation for writing down speech sounds.) A page in a different handwriting appears at the end of Wallis’s ­notebook. It appears to be the writing of a schoolboy, and it may well be that Alexander wanted to make his own mark in the notebook. His s­ ignature on that page is very similar to signatures attributed to him in estate documents and deeds as a middle-aged man, after he had left ­Littlecote and was living in Gloucestershire. Documents in l­ocal archives show that he was adept at managing his estates and handling accounts and leaseholds of water mills, land, and buildings. These documents demonstrate that it might be accurate to define Alexander ­Popham as the first Deaf businessman.

Lessons from Their Lives and Particularly Their Education Because of their upbringing, the Gaudy brothers and Alexander Popham were able to acquire a social standing unheard of for deaf persons of their time. As children, the Gaudys and Popham were able to practice

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Wallis’s written phonetics system

reading and writing in a supportive environment consisting mainly of close family members and, in the Gaudy brothers’ case, their teacher’s children, who were very similar to them in age. Comparisons Gaudy Brothers Taught in a sign language environment Were able to read and write well but had poor math skills (they were ­almost always in financial difficulty) Could not speak at all Used interpreters (family members and a scribe), especially in court

Alexander Popham Taught through speech Excellent literacy and math skills (he kept his estates in good financial order) Allegedly able to speak No evidence of using communication support

The stories of these three people have been made into two books, The Gawdy ­Manuscripts (Jackson 2004) and Alexander Popham’s Notebook (Jackson 2012).

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Finding the Connections  :  31

References Arnold, Thomas. Education of Deaf Mutes. London: Wertheimer Lea, 1888. Bulwer, John. Philocophus, or, the Deafe and Dumbe Mans Friend. London, 1648. Dobson, Austin, ed. The Diary of John Evelyn. London: Macmillan, 1906. Jackson, Peter. A Pictorial History of Deaf Britain. Winsford Cheshire, UK: Deaf­ print Winsford, 2001. . The Gawdy Manuscripts. Feltham, England: BDHS Publications, 2004. . Alexander Popham’s Notebook. Feltham, England: BDHS Publications, 2012. Popham, Frederick W. A West Country Family: The Pophams from 1150. Published privately in a limited edition, 1976. Wheatley, H. B., ed. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. London: Bell, 1949.

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Manuscript Sources British Library, Add. Mss 27395–7 , Add. Mss 36989–90 , Egerton Mss 2716–2722 Church of St. Lawrence, Bourton-on-the-Hill: Parish Register and Ledger Gloucestershire Records Office: D2957/52/3 : D2957/302/56 : D2957/302/59 : D2957/302/60 Historical Mss Commission, The Family of Gawdy. London, 1885 Norfolk Record Office: MC98    : NRA 7825 Nottingham University Archives: PW2HY.110/1 Original notebook belonging to Alexander Popham, 1662 Public Record Office: Chancery Proceedings, Bridges Division 1613–1714, no. 108 Somerset Record Office: DD/PO, POT (Popham Papers) Suffolk Record Office: Pupils List, King Edward Grammar School 1550–1700

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t

Writing Resistance: ­Edwin A. Hodgson and the Controversy at St. Ann’s Church

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Jannelle Legg

In 1897 a visible and volatile crisis occurred at St. Ann’s Church for DeafMutes in New York City. Following the sale of St. Ann’s church buildings, the parishioners struggled with a rapidly diminishing congregation and limited options for relocation.1 For two years the church was temporarily housed in the Church of St. John the Evangelist. Around that time a proposed merger with St. Matthew’s Church, a struggling parish with a hearing congregation, incited a passionate and public ­outcry from deaf members of the congregation, led by Edwin A. Hodgson, editor of the influential Deaf Mutes’ Journal (DMJ). Though attempts to block the consolidation of St. Ann’s Church failed, the controversial merger reflects far more than contentious parish unification. Closer e­ xamination reveals this to be an important social and political moment for the deaf community, where the struggle for autonomy is public and concerted, largely carried out and legitimized by a narrative of resistance in the pages of the deaf press. Hodgson was well known throughout the national and international deaf communities. Though he was born in Manchester, England, on February 28,

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Writing Resistance : 33

1854, in his youth his family relocated to Canada. ­Following “an ­attack of cerebro-spinal meningitis” at the age of eighteen, Hodgson ­became deaf. He abandoned his plans of becoming a lawyer and o ­ btained an apprenticeship in the field of printing and typography.2 ­After ­Hodgson relocated to New York City, a chance encounter with a deaf man in a composing room led Hodgson to meet Dr. Isaac L. Peet, principal of the Fanwood School, and in short order he was offered a ­position teaching printing. Under his control, the printing department at the New York Institution for the Deaf was greatly expanded, and Hodgson became well known for producing “first-class workmen.”3 An active member of St. Ann’s Church, Hodgson served as a layman under Rev. Thomas Gallaudet and was a member of St. Ann’s Vestry for a number of years.4 In matters of the church, “Mr. Hodgson’s counsel, ­always given calmly and gently, was as indispensable to the ­progress of the work as are the walls to a house.”5 As a writer, Hodgson was well known for the fearlessness with which he composed his editorial ­column.6 In 1898 James E. Gallaher described him as “a clear and ­forcible writer, not afraid to express his opinions and to stand by them, and yet always ­according those who may differ with him the courtesy due them.”7 His involvement in many deaf organizations, and particularly his prominent role as editor, not only characterized but also d ­ efined the direction of 8 deaf activism in the early twentieth century. He and other deaf writers of this time utilized the press to c­ ollaborate, inform the public, and challenge the paternalism and oralism that limited the autonomy of the deaf community in the United States.9 The written ­medium enabled Hodgson to bridge the language barrier ­between nonsigning hearing people and signing deaf people and to disseminate information widely.10 Given that the DMJ was extensively circulated and available to both deaf and hearing readers, Hodgson’s writing on this topic provided a ­counterdiscourse to proponents of the merger and a means of representation for a community that understood too well the tragic loss they faced when St. Ann’s was merged with St. Matthew’s.11 In publicizing this controversy and directly opposing the church leaders, Hodgson and other deaf individuals risked the loss of the very social and cultural center they sought to defend. Throughout St. Ann’s history, the church received frequent, a­ lbeit relatively innocuous, attention in the DMJ as Hodgson and local ­contributors

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34 : Jannelle Legg

posted summaries of parties, disclosed information about upcoming meetings, and distributed announcements related to church business.12 For a full account of the importance of the merger we can turn to ­Hodgson’s dramatic editorial writing between the years 1894 and 1897.13 An examination of texts from this period indicates that ­Hodgson used writing as a form of resistance, taking to the pages of the DMJ to highlight his discontent, promote alternative solutions to a merger, and keep his audience abreast of the changing events. In a broader view, however, the coverage of this controversy framed these events in terms of deaf agency and space. Over the course of four years, increased a­ ttention was paid to issues of autonomy, representation, and space as Hodgson’s opposition developed and his resolve deepened. For more than forty years St. Ann’s Church had operated with a dual mission. Each week, two congregations, one deaf, the other hearing, ­divided their time between the chapel and the church rooms.14 This ­arrangement served for years to buttress a system of vocational and social support between the two groups.15 As the controversy grew, the narrative that ­undercut Hodgson’s writing increasingly focused on the divided congregation, drawing a greater distinction between deaf and hearing people with more concise strokes. This was further complicated by Hodgson’s own social networks, which involved hearing people, s­ pecifically Rev. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet and John H. Comer. “The hearing have hundreds of churches, but the deaf have only one. They will soon be obliged to seek temporary quarters, and will have no permanent place of worship until the hearing representatives, who know nothing about their needs, get ready to provide one.”16 With increasing emphasis, Hodgson called for full autonomy for the deaf members of the church, with a separate church structure and a board composed of deaf members of the congregation. From the first announcement in 1894 of the sale of the church buildings, Hodgson’s editorial column outlined a plan for a new church for deaf congregants.17 In the initial descriptions of the church, his writing did not include a direct appeal for funds or assertions about the church structure.18 Instead, he made clear recommendations for accommodations that would be better suited to deaf congregants in terms of location and arrangement and even mentioned the construction of additional buildings.19 These requests were not unreasonable, as there was a history

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Writing Resistance : 35

of renovating St. Ann’s church buildings to make the space more accessible to signing deaf congregants.20 Representation did not appear as a theme in Hodgson’s writing at this time. At this stage, the search committee responsible for soliciting a new location for the church included a deaf representative and several deaf members of the vestry. Hodgson was confident that the deaf members would receive “the consideration to which they [were] surely entitled.”21 After a failed attempt to build on lots in upper Manhattan, the spring of 1895 was marked by a rapid escalation in Hodgson’s coverage and prose. He called for separate church buildings that were adapted specifically to the requirements of the deaf congregants.22 As events, ­including an attempted merger with another church, unfolded, the lack of equal representation in the vestry became a very important feature of Hodgson’s writing.23 In one editorial he asserted, “In the councils of the consolidated church, the deaf have no representation at all proportionate to the needs and demands of their mission.”24 Throughout this period he highlighted that, beyond the few deaf vestrymen, those who were members “knew absolutely nothing about the deaf congregation.”25 Hodgson warned his readers that these church leaders would continue to take action without the input of the deaf community. He reiterated that, although the hearing congregants had a multitude of churches at their disposal, for members of the deaf community, St. Ann’s was the sole option: “[W]e protest against sacrificing the spiritual welfare of the deaf in order to suit the convenience of the hearing congregation. There are plenty of churches with which hearing people can affiliate, but there is only one for deaf-mutes.”26 This argument, which appeared throughout the controversy, indicated the disparity between the deaf and the hearing congregants and also the significant loss of access to social space that threatened the deaf community. Despite his initial critique, in mid-April 1895 Hodgson’s editorial writing took a conciliatory step back. Where he had directly called for a division between the deaf and the hearing congregations, Hodgson shifted his attention to maintaining the church’s dual mission, while also achieving a level of autonomy and obtaining distinctive deaf spaces within a new church structure.27 By the fall of 1895 attendance at church services and social organizations had begun to decline. Without directly criticizing the church

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36 : Jannelle Legg

or its leaders, Hodgson again called for the establishment of a distinct and separate space for the deaf congregants. This time, he claimed the church funds belonged to the deaf congregants: The deaf-mutes of this city are in urgent need of such a building. They contributed much to St. Ann’s and it is their peculiar condition that has enlisted the sympathy of wealthy people and thus secured many donations to St. Ann’s. They are, therefore, entitled to first consideration, for while hearing people can become members of any number of other churches the deaf-mutes are dependent upon the one where sign language is used in preaching . . . Build the parish house at once, and save the deaf-mutes from temptation and disaster!28

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A tentative repose continued in his coverage until the fall of 1896, when Hodgson’s column erupted yet again after he learned that, despite assurances to the contrary, church leaders had continued to discuss options for relocation without open communication with the church’s deaf members: [I]t seems the religious welfare of deaf-mutes is neglected, because the church for deaf-mutes is also for hearing persons. Promises were given over a year ago that active work to procure a new house of worship would be begun at once, and that the deaf-mutes affiliated with “St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes” would be kept informed. . . . Lately, we have been told that the efforts to build on the site selected . . . have been abandoned; that plans have been discussed by the hearing vestrymen;—but secrecy has been observed towards the deaf-mutes. “St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes” has a vestry composed of hearing persons who control everything—the three deaf-mutes on the vestry being in the minority by about three to one. The hearing vestrymen are undoubtedly good and generous Christians. But they know nothing about deaf-mutes, they never are seen among deaf-mutes and not one deaf-mute of St. Ann’s congregation even knows their names. “St. Ann’s Church for Deaf Mutes” has prospered from the labors of its ministry to a very great extent, but it has been helped far more (from a financial point of view) by its name—“St. Ann’s Church for ­ eaf-Mutes.” . . . Therefore it is right and just for the deaf-mutes to D receive first consideration in the planning of the new church edifice.29

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Writing Resistance : 37

Hodgson openly renewed his disdain for the lack of representation and emphasized that these actions denied the deaf congregants agency ­within the church that carried their name. In April 1897 Bishop Henry C. Potter and the vestry of St. Ann’s Church began a series of meetings with the vestry of St. Matthew’s Church to discuss the possibility of a merger. Renewing his protest about the lack of representation of the deaf congregants and criticizing the physical space, Hodgson outright demanded that a large portion of the financial holdings of St. Ann’s be directed to the deaf congregants for their own use:30 “The deaf-mutes of New York are ­indignant and ­angry at the attempt to deprive them of the funds which rightly b ­ elong to the church work among deaf-mutes.”31 His editorial concisely ­exhorted the leaders of St. Ann’s to take action against the merger and lamented that the lack of representation had functionally limited the deaf com­ munity from actionable dissent: “Any one can see that the work and accumulation of money for forty years in the name of deaf-mutes are to be wrecked at one fell swoop, and the deaf-mutes are to be stranded high and dry without a dollar they can call their own.”32 Finally, he openly castigated the church leaders for using the deaf c­ ongregants as an object of pity to obtain funds and then divert these funds for the leaders’ own benefit:33 “St. Ann’s Church for ­Deaf-Mutes has thrived on donations and legacies. . . . And with pity and charity in their hearts, good people gave liberally. . . . How indignant these d ­ onors must feel to-day, if they know that effort is being made to divert the accumulated funds of ‘ST. ANN’S CHURCH FOR DEAF-MUTES’ to alien purposes.”34 The division between the hearing and the deaf congregants, which Hodgson had highlighted in his writing, was complicated by a partnership with John H. Comer, a hearing member of the vestry and strong opponent of the church consolidation. Comer, a senior warden of the church, had publicly denounced the merger and in protest attempted to resign his position as a member of the vestry.35 The collaboration ­between these men was fostered by Hodgson’s writing on the subject, and through correspondence the pair combined their efforts to contest the consolidation.36 Though the motivations driving their individual ­opposition differed, Hodgson and Comer worked closely to prevent the consolidation, sharing information and providing each other with ­support as events unfolded.37

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38 : Jannelle Legg

By the beginning of the summer, the tension surrounding the ­controversy had reached a breaking point, as evidenced by tumultuous meetings held on June 18, 1897. Two distinct accounts of these events exist. The first, published in the New York Times (NYT), f­eatured a ­salacious headline and a description of the events that largely ­faulted the ­ pposition deaf congregants. The article, titled “Nearly a Riot in Church; O to the Consolidation of St. Ann’s and St. Matthew’s Leads to Blows; One Man Thrown Down Stairs,” described a “crowd of mutes wildly gesticulating” and a “small sized riot” that ensued after a supporter of the merger “smothered the lamps lighting the room [and] a deaf person struck that individual and was then captured by the group and thrown down the stairs.”38 The second account, published in the DMJ by ­Hodgson and Theo Lounsbary and disclosed in a private l­etter from Comer to ­Hodgson, told a vastly different story.39 While the NYT version of events indicated that the “faction in opposition to the consolidation” was at fault, Hodgson’s column emphasized the lack of justice in the overall process of the merger and highlighted a systematic disregard by hearing people for the deaf congregants. “In defiance of all parliamentary law, and utterly ignoring what is right and just, a number of men in the rear of the hall were counted so as to defeat the solid vote of the deaf gentlemen present, the ladies not being the a­ llowed the privileges of voting. The Chairman of the meeting hurriedly announced that the agreement had been approved, jammed it in his coat pocket and hastened from the hall.”40 Hodgson challenged the report in the NYT and declared that the size of the opposition to the merger was larger than indicated. “­After the meeting, the deaf members—in fact, all the deaf gentlemen and ­ladies present—organized and voted solidly and unanimously against the ‘agreement’ which Dr. Krans told a reporter had been approved with practically no opposition.”41 This marked a ­significant event in the controversy and, more broadly, has direct implications for the role of the press in disseminating information and providing a counternarrative of deaf discourse. The fall of 1897 brought renewed attempts to challenge the merger, but these proved unsuccessful. On October 27 the Supreme Court Order of Consolidation was signed by Judge Truax. Though Hodgson followed these events closely, little was known about their progression until the

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Writing Resistance : 39

merger was announced.42 As the facts became clear, Hodgson provided a full accounting of the consolidation for his readers, emphasizing that even though they had succeeded in guaranteeing a separate space for the deaf congregants of St. Ann’s, they had done so at the cost of their church funds and drastically limited autonomy and representation in the church structure.43 Hodgson wrote dejectedly, “The fight to prevent the ‘consolidation’ of St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes with St. Matthew’s Church has ended with defeat for the deaf-mutes who, almost to a man, ­protested and pleaded against the absorption of their church and transfer of its ­ rder, the new St. M ­ atthew’s funds to St. Matthew’s Church.”44 In short o carried out the agreement, and a chapel was quickly constructed on 148th Street.45 At the conclusion of the controversy, one deaf writer declared that the deaf community would not “live long enough to ever forget the loss of their church.”46 Though this remains a valuable example of deaf ­resistance and historical claims for autonomy and deaf spaces, the story of these events has been largely absent from the deaf historical record. The reasons for this resistance are myriad and complex; however, it is ­important to identify St. Ann’s Church for members of the New York deaf community as a social and cultural institution. While churches serve as houses for religious worship, enabling the expression of faith and ­community by members of the congregation, they also serve a n ­ umber of other social functions. In this case, St. Ann’s Church ­provided an ­array of social and welfare services for its congregants, including financial aid, employment assistance, legal and interpreting services, housing, and ­educational opportunities.47 Beyond this, the physical spaces a­ vailable to deaf community members provided an ­opportunity to ­develop ­agency and organization through the number of deaf clubs and associations that operated out of St. Ann’s. As the escalation of Hodgson’s writing demonstrates, the dual congregation of St. Ann’s struggled to align the needs and aspirations of the deaf congregants with the patriarchal church structure. The increasing division between both deaf and hearing congregants demonstrated an increasingly organized and politically active American deaf community struggling to redefine its position in terms of autonomy and representation. In the span of three years, the narrative Hodgson utilized shifted

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40 : Jannelle Legg

from a tacit acceptance of the dynamics at St. Ann’s to an assertion that the deaf congregants had a right to control both the church funds that they had donated and a distinct space for themselves. As Hodgson’s writing strongly opposed the merger, his framing of these events in terms of a loss of agency and space was disseminated across the United States to the DMJ’s readers. These efforts are significant in the role they played in creating an informed audience. The readers of the DMJ and similar deaf newspapers utilized these texts to stay current on issues relevant to their c­ ommunity.48 In the United States the deaf press featured selected ­articles of ­interest from the mainstream press, generating a deaf-­centered forum that would be published and reprinted elsewhere.49 The St. Ann’s controversy demonstrates how effective this web of information could be in creating an informed narrative of resistance. The coverage of this controversy in the DMJ elicited responses of support from distant members of the deaf community and gained increasing attention in another paper in the network of private and deaf school newspapers known as the Little Paper Family.50 Significantly, the attention garnered extended beyond the deaf community. As evidenced by the collaboration between Hodgson and Comer, the resistance written about in the DMJ created a counter­ discourse to the coverage that appeared in the New York Times. Though it is noteworthy that this collaboration crossed hearing/deaf boundaries, it indicates that, in moments of controversy, the press may be used to draw a distinction between deaf and hearing discourses and further illustrates the distribution of power in the deaf community. Further consideration of the controversy suggests that, within the deaf community itself, the esteem Hodgson garnered as editor of a prestigious publication lent legitimacy to his arguments and editorials, and it appears that the press can act to legitimize opinions to the point of eliciting a direct response from church leaders, though, in this case, it was ineffective in preventing the merger.51 An important aspect of Hodgson’s resistance was his role as editor of a nationally circulated newspaper. Each week Hodgson had a platform from which to circulate information, promote his personal opinions, and direct his readers’ attention to certain issues. This platform created

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Writing Resistance : 41

a public space for discussing the issues confronting the American deaf community in which deaf perspectives and writing were given primacy. Whether presenting direct or veiled critiques, the columns of the deaf press enabled Hodgson and other deaf writers to publicly collaborate and to challenge coercive power relations. Even though this episode has largely been lost to history, Hodgson’s actions indicate that he understood the value of using these newspapers as his pulpit, exhorting deaf people and the public at large to act. Despite his failed efforts to stave off the merger, these events reflect a number of larger issues that deaf people grappled with at the time. Deaf church members’ autonomy was wrested away without any input from them, and the community suffered another defeat in the loss of their physical space and control of their finances. Hodgson was uniquely able to insert himself into a dialogue on the issues of representation, space, and autonomy, and though he was unsuccessful, this episode also demonstrates the importance of harnessing the pages of the deaf press to create a space for resistance.

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Notes   1. For additional analysis see Jannelle Legg, “ ‘Not Consolidation but Absorption’: A Historical Examination of the Controversy at St. Ann’s Church for the Deaf ” (master’s thesis, Gallaudet University, 2011).   2. Guilbert C. Braddock, “Edwin Hodgson,” Fanwood Journal 2, no. 1 (October 1933): 5–7; William Robert Roe, Peeps into the Deaf World (London: Bemrose and Sons, 1917); Raymond Lee, Deaf Lives: Deaf People in History, ed. Raymond Lee and Peter Webster Jackson (Middlesex: British Deaf History Society Publications, 2001); ­Lawrence R. Newman, Sands of Time: NAD Presidents 1880–2003 (Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, 2006).   3. Roe, Peeps into the Deaf World, 352–54.   4. Newman, Sands of Time, 31.   5. Braddock, “Edwin Hodgson.”   6. T. Alan Hurwitz, “Education; Other Deaf Educational Leaders,” in Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness, 1st ed., ed. John V. Van Cleve (New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 1987), 364.   7. James Ernst Gallaher, Representative Deaf Persons of the United States of A ­ merica: Containing Portraits and Character Sketches of Prominent Deaf Persons ­(commonly Called “Deaf Mutes”) Who Are Engaged in the Higher Pursuits of Life ­(Chicago: Gallaher, 1898), 162.   8. For further biographical information about Hodgson consult ibid., 159–62; Roe, Peeps into the Deaf World, 352–54; Jack R. Gannon, Deaf Heritage: A Narrative H ­ istory

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42 : Jannelle Legg of Deaf America, ed. Jane Butler and Laura-Jean Gilbert (Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, 1981), 62, 65; Hurwitz, “Education; Other Deaf E ­ ducational Leaders,” 364; Lee, Deaf Lives, 98–99; Newman, Sands of Time, 23–44.   9. For further examination of this facet of deaf history see Christopher Krentz, Writing Deafness: The Hearing Line in Nineteenth-Century American Literature ­(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007); John V. Van Cleve and Barry A. Crouch, A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America (Washington, DC: ­Gallaudet University Press, 1989); Susan Burch, Signs of Resistance: American Deaf ­Cultural History, 1900 to World War II (New York: NYU Press, 2004); “The Silent ­Worker Newspaper and the Building of a Deaf Community: 1890–1929,” in Deaf History ­Unveiled: Interpretations from the New Scholarship, ed. John V. Van Cleve (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1999), 172–97. 10. Christopher Krentz expands on this at length in his texts: Christopher Krentz, A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 1816–1864 (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2000), xx, xxi; Krentz, Writing Deafness. 11. The DMJ is further described in “Edwin Allan Hodgson, M.A.,” Silent Worker 7, no. 3 (November 1894): 1–2; and Newman, Sands of Time, 25. For more information about the American deaf press, see Beth Haller, “The Little Papers: Newspapers at the Nineteenth-Century Schools for Deaf Persons,” Journalism History 19, no. 2 (1993): 43. 12. These articles provide a bit of insight into church structures and proceedings and enable us to flesh out the convergence of events that led to the controversy. Several examples of these articles include Henry C. Rider, “St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes,” DMJ 5, no. 1 (January 6, 1876): 2; Edwin A. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 15, no. 29 (July 22, 1886): 2; Montague Tigg: “New York; Society Doings and Other Happenings; Personal and Not Personal,” DMJ 15, no. 41 (October 14, 1886): 3; “Services for ­Deaf-Mutes,” DMJ 21, no. 41 (October 13, 1892): 2; “Special Notice to Deaf-Mutes,” DMJ 21, no. 43 (October 27, 1892): 4; “Manhattan Literary Ass’n,” DMJ 21, no. 43 (October 27, 1892): 4. 13. Legg, “ ‘Not Consolidation but Absorption.’ ” 14. Beginning in 1874, the church had two additional ministers for each congregation: the Reverend Edward Krans for the hearing and the Reverend John Chamberlain for the deaf. Thomas Gallaudet, “History,” Sacramental Register 3 (St. Ann’s Church, 1873–1887), 6, Box 45, File 1, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. 15. Gallaudet wrote that his goal was to join families together in one church house for mutual support. Thomas Gallaudet, “A Sketch of My Life,” unpublished autobiographical manuscript (Washington, DC, n.d.), 10, Thomas Gallaudet Papers, Gallaudet University Archives. 16. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 12 (March 21, 1895): 2. 17. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 22, no. 44 (November 1, 1894): 2; “In the Real Estate Field,” New York Times (October 31, 1894), New York Times Archive 1851– 1980. 18. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 23, no. 48 (November 29, 1894), 2. It is possible that Hodgson and the other deaf congregants did not directly consider representation because representation was a facet of Episcopal church structures. For further discussion of the Episcopal Church system see Legg, “ ‘Not Consolidation but Absorption.’ ” 19. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 23, no. 48 (November 29, 1894), 2. 20. Tigg, “New York,” October 14, 1886. 21. W. O. Fitzgerald was a member of the five-person search committee, and the vestry members included H. J. Haight, A. A. Barnes, and William Fitzgerald. Ted,

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Writing Resistance : 43 “New York,” DMJ 23, no. 45 (November 8, 1894): 3; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 23, no. 48 (November 29, 1894). 22. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 9 (February 28, 1895): 2; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 10 (March 7, 1895): 2; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 11 (March 14, 1895): 2; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 12 (March 21, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 13 (March 28, 1895): 2. 23. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 23, no. 48 (November 29, 1894); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 11 (March 14, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 12 (March 21, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 13 (March 28, 1895). 24. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 13 (March 28, 1895). 25. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 12 (March 21, 1895): 2. 26. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 10 (March 7, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 11 (March 14, 1895). 27. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 13 (March 28, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 14 (April 4, 1895): 2; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 17 (April 25, 1895): 3; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 21 (May 23, 1895): 2. 28. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 39 (September 26, 1895): 2. 29. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 25, no. 35 (August 27, 1896): 2. 30. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column: St. Ann’s Church for Deaf-Mutes,” DMJ 26, no. 14 (April 8, 1897): 2. 31. Ibid. 32. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 16 (April 22, 1897): 2. 33. Ibid. 34. Ibid. 35. John H. Comer, “Correspondence: Comer to the Rector and Vestry of St. Ann’s, March 30, 1887,” Correspondence, March 30, 1897, Box 44, File 12, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; “Church Merging Blocked,” New York Times (May 7, 1897), New York Times Archive 1851–1980, http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srchst=p. 36. John H. Comer, “Correspondence: Comer to Hodgson, April 12, 1897,” Correspondence, April 12, 1897, Box 44, File 12, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 19 (May 13, 1897): 2. 37. Legg, “ ‘Not Consolidation but Absorption.’ ” 38. “Nearly a Riot in Church,” New York Times (June 19, 1897), New York Times Archive 1851–1980. 39. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 25 (June 24, 1897): 2; “Ted,” “New York: St. Ann’s–St. Matthew’s Consolidation Matter,” DMJ 26, no. 25 (June 24, 1897): 2; John H. Comer, “Correspondence: Comer to Hodgson, June 22, 1897,” Correspondence, June 22, 1897, Box 44, File 12, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. 40. “Nearly a Riot in Church”; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 25 (June 24, 1897). 41. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 25 (June 24, 1897). 42. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 42 (October 21, 1897): 2; Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 45 (October 28, 1897): 2. 43. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 46 (November 18, 1897): 2. 44. Ibid. 45. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 27, no. 46 (November 17, 1898): 2; Alexander L. Pach, “Greater New York,” Silent Worker 11, no. 4 (December 1898): 54–56. 46. Robert E. Maynard, “Greater New York,” Silent Worker 10, no. 6 (February 1898): 92.

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47. For further examination of the role of religious institutions see Otto Benjamin Berg and Henry L. Buzzard, A Missionary Chronicle: Being a History of the Ministry to the Deaf in the Episcopal Church, 1850–1980 (Hollywood, MD: St. Mary’s Press, 1984); Legg, “ ‘Not Consolidation but Absorption’ ”; Burch, Signs of Resistance, 44–52; Kent R. Olney, “The Chicago Mission for the Deaf,” in The Deaf History Reader, ed. John Vickrey Van Cleve (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2007), 174–208; Van Cleve and Crouch, Place of Their Own, 1–8; Douglas C. Baynton, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996); Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Vintage, 1984); Otto Benjamin Berg and Henry L. Buzzard, Thomas Gallaudet, Apostle to the Deaf (New York: St. Ann’s Church for the Deaf, 1989); Gannon, Deaf Heritage. 48. Krentz, Mighty Change, xxi. 49. Haller, “Little Papers”; Van Cleve and Crouch, Place of Their Own; Krentz, Mighty Change, xxi. 50. Olaf Hanson, “Correspondence: Olaf Hanson to Hodgson, July 1, 1897,” Correspondence, July 1, 1897, Box 44, File 10, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; C. M. Nelson, “Correspondence: C. M. Nelson to Hodgson, July 20, 1897,” Correspondence, July 20, 1897, Box 44, File 10, Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; “A Quad,” “Our New York Letter,” Silent Worker 7, no. 7 (March 1895): 10. 51. Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 24, no. 39 (September 26, 1895); Hodgson, “Editor’s Column,” DMJ 26, no. 14 (April 8, 1897); Edward H. Krans, “Rev. Dr. Krans Writes about St. Ann’s,” DMJ 24, no. 19 (May 9, 1895): 4.

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Hannah Holmes: A Case of Japanese American Deaf Incarceration

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Newby Ely

Hannah Tomiko Takagi Holmes (1927–1996), a Deaf Japanese American, endured decades of adversity marked by multiple forms of discrimination, wartime incarceration, and cancer. Nevertheless, she fought endlessly for equality and justice for Deaf people, Asian Americans, and women. Citing relevant examples, this chapter examines the important historical impact of Hannah as a Deaf pioneer. I chose to study Hannah because, after I had reviewed the wartime files of approximately sixty Deaf and hard of hearing Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in US concentration camps, Hannah stood out as one of the most distinguished. An important indicator is the relatively high number of Google entries on Hannah, while there are nearly none on the rest of these victims.

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Early Childhood

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Hannah was born into a Japanese American family in Elk Grove, a r­ ural town near Sacramento, California. Her parents had emigrated to the United States from Hiroshima, Japan, via Hawaii. They were fruit f­armers.1 Hannah’s deafness was discovered at age three or four, when her father ­noticed that she had not begun talking. So Hannah was ­taken to a doctor, who confirmed her deafness. Her parents spoke only Japanese. They often asked Ruth, Hannah’s older sister, to interpret for them with Hannah. It was often a challenge for Ruth, as a young girl, to translate from J­ apanese to ­English.2 Hannah’s first school was a hearing school in Elk Grove, ­California. Her first teacher had a lot of patience with her. Although she was one of Hannah’s best teachers, she did not have enough time to spend with Hannah because she had to balance her teaching time among all of her students. Therefore, she arranged to send Hannah to the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley,3 where ­Hannah enrolled in 1935. The following years proved to be an awakening for her because she could finally converse with people in sign language. Her academic performance was deemed to be ­adequate.4 She discovered her talent for art in an art class taught by a Deaf teacher.5 Hannah’s childhood innocence, which was soon to be shattered, is ­evident in a passage from her school newsletter of January 1942: Blackouts or no blackouts, life goes on as usual in the Girls’ Primary Hall. The girls just cannot let such a little thing as a blackout interfere with their many and varied activities! There are many more exciting things happening to claim their interest. Only the other day Hannah Takagi came running into the house to tell us that out on the playground there was a great monster with horns and a great, red tongue hanging from his mouth. Dubiously, we investigated, and sure enough, there he was, not a monster, but a beautiful deer. He was surrounded by a mob of wildly excited youngsters and did not know where to turn. Finally he dashed away and was later rounded up by the police.6

On December 7, 1941, Japan had launched a surprise attack on the US ­naval bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The two following months were fueled by intense pressure by politicians on the West Coast, who ­demanded restrictive action against Japanese American residents. On

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Hannah Holmes : 47

February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the War Department to designate military areas, from which any or all persons could be excluded. This ­enabled the military authorities to designate the West Coast as a r­ estricted zone and to force approximately one hundred and twenty t­ housand Japanese Americans to leave their homes. One month later President Roosevelt signed ­Executive Order 9102, creating a wartime civilian agency, the War Relocation Authority (WRA), to oversee the detention of Japanese Americans. It was the new agency’s responsibility to build concentration camps and to provide food, clothes, employment, education, and other services within the camps. The WRA was also authorized to grant leave clearance for Japanese Americans wishing to resettle in nonrestricted areas for education or employment, providing that the FBI and other security agencies had also cleared these individuals.

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Incarceration One week after Executive Order 9066 was issued,7 Hannah’s father ­removed her without explanation from the California School for the Deaf, leaving her feeling confused. She later learned the reason for her father’s actions from her sister Ruth. Her family was relocating to an asparagus farm in Clarksberg, near Sacramento. At this farm, a group of hearing Japanese men mocked Hannah, angering her father. As a result, the family moved again, this time to a potato farm in Stockton. Here several Filipino workers threatened to kill the Japanese American workers. Because of this, Hannah had to stay inside the family’s barracks for safety. With only newspapers to read to keep her busy, Hannah felt like a prisoner. After this, her family was forced to return to their home in Elk Grove to pack for the move to the Manzanar concentration camp. Each family member was allowed to take only one piece of luggage. Shortly after the arrival at Manzanar in May 1942, Hannah encountered discrimination from the hearing Japanese children there, who made fun of her deafness. She observed them “looking at her, pointing at her, and whispering behind their hands. She knew they were talking about her. She did not make any friends among them because they did not know how to communicate with her.”8

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In the fall of 1942 four schools for Deaf students rejected the WRA’s requests to enroll Hannah and other Deaf Japanese American children. These were the California School for the Deaf, the Colorado School for the Deaf, the Kendall Green School (at Gallaudet College), and the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.9 At the camp Hannah attended some flower-making classes for a while. But the teacher of the class later asked her not to come to the class anymore because it was overcrowded. Consequently, Hannah ­became discouraged.10 According to her sister Ruth, Hannah “began feeling left out and unhappy at times because she could not go to school” like the hearing Japanese Americans in the camp.11 In January 1943 the camp’s health department arranged for a Miss E. Thomas to teach Hannah for an hour twice weekly, with emphasis on speech and lipreading. On ­Saturdays, Hannah and Miss Thomas attended a typing class. But so few hours of class time did not suffice for Hannah. She wanted parttime work like sewing just to keep busy.12 In her 1981 testimony for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in Los ­Angeles, Hannah criticized Miss Thomas’s teaching. When Hannah asked Miss Thomas for help, the latter said she was “just too busy.” ­Hannah stated that she, and not Miss Thomas, taught herself to type.13 Hannah also had trouble understanding Miss Thomas in class.14 An undated memo from E. B. Dykes, the Manzanar Elementary School principal, states that Hannah was not graded in the camp hospital’s special class because of her deafness. The principal also stated that she did not make any progress. He added that her parents did not ­appreciate her difficulties or the school’s services.15 In her 1981 testimony to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Hannah challenged Dykes’s comments.16 After further investigation, it was learned that Dykes did not become principal until January 1945. In May 1943, however, Hannah had already transferred to the Tule Lake concentration camp, where Dykes was a science teacher at the high school.17 Therefore, Dykes’s memo lacks credibility. In 1943 the WRA granted Hannah’s family’s request to transfer ­Hannah to the Tule Lake concentration camp, where they had heard that a special school for children with handicaps was going to be established.18 Hannah and her family took the bus from Manzanar to Tule Lake,

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Hannah Holmes : 49

c­ hanging buses in Reno, Nevada. They were not permitted to eat lunch at a café in Reno because a sign reading “No Japs served” was posted there.19 In an interview, Nancy Ikeda, another incarcerated Deaf Nikkei (or ­Japanese emigrant), recollected that in the 1980s Hannah expressed anger about being interned. Nancy and Hannah had met at Tule Lake, where ­Hannah jokingly scolded Nancy for stealing something.20 When Tule Lake established the special school for children with handicaps, one of the teachers invited Hannah and the other students to name the facility. Hannah’s proposal to name the school after Helen Keller, whom Hannah had read about, was unanimously accepted. The teacher then asked Hannah to write a letter to Helen Keller. One or two months later Hannah received a letter in response: Let them [the students] only remember this . . . their courage in conquering obstacles will be a lamp throwing its bright rays far into other lives besides their own . . . War, change, sorrow cannot take from us anything really noble, gracious and helpful in our lives . . . With best wishes for the children in their studies and victory over limitation, and warmest thanks for writing to me, I am affectionately your friend, Helen Keller.21

The letter was published in the Tule Lake camp newspaper with an ­editor’s note listing Hannah as the “spokesman” for the students.22 As she later related, Hannah felt that Helen Keller was her only friend ­during her stay at Tule Lake.23

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Relocation to Chicago When Hannah’s father obtained a job in Chicago and applied for his family to be relocated with him, the WRA granted Hannah and her parents leave from the Tule Lake camp.24 The WRA’s Chicago office then arranged for Hannah to be enrolled at the Alexander Graham Bell ­Elementary School in Chicago.25 Here she encountered adversity on several fronts. Some of her white classmates, who had brothers and fathers fighting against Japan on the Pacific front, expressed their antiJapanese feelings toward Hannah, as did a white teacher. In addition, sign language was expressly forbidden at the school, which frustrated Hannah.26 Encouraged by another student, Hannah applied for a job at Zenith ­Factory in Chicago. However, upon seeing her Japanese family

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Hannah Holmes

name on her job application, the factory rejected her, although it had already employed several other students from the school.27 Hannah was still determined not to give up her educational pursuits. In September 1944 she enrolled at the Illinois School for the Deaf (ISD) in Jacksonville.28 According to Hannah, the older students were not friendly with her, but the younger students were.29 She encountered a hostile housemother who referred to her as a “Jap.” In response, she summoned up enough courage to write to Superintendent Daniel T. Cloud, asking for this situation to be resolved. She initially feared that she would be expelled in retaliation. Shortly afterward, Hannah was surprised to see the housemother no longer on the ISD campus.30 During the wartime years the school dormitories and dining hall were racially segregated, although the classes were integrated. Despite H ­ annah’s experiences of discrimination, former ISD students Alice Vespa and ­Russell Raines recalled no apparent hostility toward Japanese A ­ mericans 31 at the school. During this time Hannah wrote several articles for the monthly school newsletter. In one article she quoted a favorite poem from an untitled book that had been printed in 1865: “Help the weak if you are strong.”32 She also wrote that books help us forget about an unhappy, poor, or sad life.33 Hannah graduated from the school in 1948.

The Postschool Years From 1948 to 1953 Hannah held several jobs in Chicago. In 1953 she returned to California for the first time since 1942. For a period of time she lived in her brother Paul’s home in Los Angeles,34 and there, around

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Hannah Holmes : 51

1954, Hannah met Dwight Edwin Holmes, a white Deaf man, at a Deaf club.35 Her family, however, did not approve of Dwight because he was not of Japanese descent. In 1959, because she knew that her family would not approve of her marriage, Hannah married Dwight in a private ceremony in Las Vegas.36 Their marriage lasted nearly forty years. With the aid of her niece Carol Ann Friedman, who took class notes and interpreted for her in class, Hannah earned a teacher’s certificate at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA).37 She then became a teacher’s aide at a vocational school, teaching hearing Vietnamese refugees.38 Despite the language barrier, they communicated by writing back and forth.39 Horrified by the school’s blatant lack of concern and support for the refugees, Hannah filed a discrimination complaint against the school on their behalf. She later remarked that she felt much better by fighting back in pursuit of equality for Asians, Deaf people, and women.40 However, the vocational school closed, forcing Hannah to retire from her job.41

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Bearing Witness Hannah was the only Deaf person among the 153 persons who testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, an official group created by the US Congress, in Los Angeles on August 4–6, 1981. Its objective was to investigate matters regarding the wartime camps and to make recommendations for reparation. Hannah had been invited to testify because the commission and the general public were apparently not familiar with the experiences of interned Japanese Americans who were Deaf or had a disability.42 Her testimony focused on the adverse impact of incarceration on education for these individuals. Drawing on her own experiences and those of other Deaf Japanese Americans, she gave testimony on the following points: 1. During wartime, Japanese American children on the West Coast were excluded from every public institution for children who were Deaf or had a disability. 2. The War Relocation Authority neglected the educational needs of such children, some of whom never recovered from the incarceration’s interruption of their education.

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3. Although hearing Japanese Americans received an education in the camps, their counterparts who were Deaf or had a disability had no such opportunity at Manzanar. 4. At the Tule Lake concentration camp, children who were Deaf or had a disability were lumped together in the Helen Keller School, where sign language was not allowed. 5. Monetary compensation should be provided to these Japanese Americans for their wrongful incarceration.43 Three months later Hannah discovered that she, under a different name, was being portrayed as a character in a play called Christmas at Camp. Her testimony for the commission had inspired the playwright Don McWilly to model a Deaf character after her. Hannah’s character was the first cast member listed in the playbill. The play ran for three weeks at an Asian American theater in Los Angeles called East-West Players. Alerted by her lawyer, Gerald Sato, she attended a performance with complimentary tickets. She became very emotional and happy. ­Afterward she thanked the playwright warmly.44 Hannah was also the only Deaf victim of wartime incarceration to be interviewed by the Oral History Project at California State University.45 It is likely that her testimony to the commission led to her being invited to participate in these two interviews, which resulted in more than one hundred pages of typed transcripts. Her input provided rare insight into what incarceration in concentration camps was like for Deaf Japanese Americans. From my interviews with other people, including Hannah’s husband and other Deaf Japanese Americans who had been interned, it appears that Hannah never shared her camp experiences with anyone else, not even with other Deaf people who had been in the same camp at the same time as Hannah. Earlier, in May 1979, William Hohri had formed the National Coun­ ational Council cil for Japanese American Redress.46 In March 1983 the N filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of ­approximately one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans for their wartime ­incarceration, seeking monetary reparations. Of the twenty-one plaintiffs, Hannah was the only person who was Deaf or had a disability. She was listed as the second plaintiff in the lawsuit ­after William Hohri.47

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Hannah Holmes : 53

­ annah announced the lawsuit’s filing at a press ­conference in Los H ­Angeles.48 Again, her 1981 testimony for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians likely led to her involvement in this lawsuit. In an interview, Ronald Hirano recalled Hannah showing him several articles and photos about the lawsuit that were featured in the 1980s in Rafu Shimpo, a Los Angeles–based Japanese American newspaper. Hannah displayed enthusiastic dedication to her work with the National Council.49 William Hohri later told Hannah’s sister Ruth that Hannah had made critical contributions to the redress movement.50 However, in 1988 the US Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit. Nevertheless, the US Congress passed an act authorizing monetary reparations to the surviving Japanese Americans who had been incarcerated in the camps. President Reagan signed this act on August 10, 1988. The federal government also issued an official apology to Japanese Americans for their wrongful confinement. This was unique because, to date, the federal government still has not apologized for the forced relocation of American Indians or the enslavement of African Americans. In 1986 Roger W. Axford published an anthology of twelve Japanese Americans’ oral history narratives related to their wartime incarceration. Hannah was the only storyteller who was Deaf or had a disability to be included in this compilation. Her narrative’s title is catchy: “Meet the Deaf Plaintiff.” In 1995 a production company selected Hannah as the subject of one episode of the Deaf Women’s History Series titled A Neglected ­Cultural Legacy: Life Stories of Deaf Women. These producers wanted to interview her about her life, but she was too ill. Her sister Ruth T ­ akagi Miyauchi, however, took her place, drawing on her recollections of growing up with Hannah. In April 1988 Hannah presented her doll and quilt to the Manzanar National Historic Site’s museum.51 These two artifacts were her labor of love, focusing on the spirit of Japanese Americans incarcerated in the ten US concentration camps, including Manzanar. They are on permanent display at the museum. Hannah battled cancer for nearly twenty years. As a registered nurse, her niece Carol Ann Friedman provided medical assistance to Hannah

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until her death.52 Dwight Holmes had purchased two plots in a cemetery before Hannah died. However, to respect Hannah’s wishes, Dwight and Hannah’s brother Paul had her cremated, later scattering her ashes at the site of the Manzanar camp.53

Conclusion This chapter has provided chronological examples of Hannah’s important historical impact. This is not the definite or final work on Hannah’s life, however, because of the limited access to certain data such as Hannah’s photo and document collection. It is to be hoped that these sources will be made accessible for a future full-length biography and a video documentary. At this point, one still can be inspired by the examples cited here of how Hannah endured decades of bitter adversity, refusing to give up and fighting to achieve equality and justice for Asians, Deaf people, and women. This is highlighted by her role in the redress movement, which won the government’s apology for the wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans. In the end, perhaps Helen Keller’s letter had provided Hannah with a moral compass to continue her fight.

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Notes  1. Individual Record, form WRA 26 [Tomokichi Takagi], Evacuee Case File, ­Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC.   2. Ruth Miyauchi, interview by Caroline L. Preston, in A Neglected Cultural ­Legacy: Life Stories of Deaf Women [Northridge, CA: PepNet Resource Center, 1999]. Video ­recording.   3. Hannah Takagi Holmes, interview by Arthur A. Hansen, February 8, 1982, transcript.   4. Mary W. Robinson, supervising teacher, California School for the Deaf ­[Hannah Takagi’s] Final School Report, September 24, 1942, [Hannah Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC.   5. Holmes interview by Hansen.   6. Amelia Luken, “Girls’ Primary News,” California News 57, no. 5 (1942): 66.   7. Robinson, Final School Report.   8. Holmes interview by Hansen.   9. Letter from Elwood A. Stevenson, superintendent of the California School for the Deaf, to Ruth Takagi, September 11, 1942; letter from Dr. Al. Brown, s­ uperintendent of the Colorado School for the Deaf, to Ruth Takagi, October 7, 1942; letter from Dr.  Morris Wistar Wood, superintendent of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf,

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Hannah Holmes : 55 ­ ovember 6, 1942; and letter from Dr. Percival Hall, Gallaudet College, to the War N ­Relocation Authority, November 7, 1942, [Hannah Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC. 10. Untitled welfare report, August 29, 1942, to February 29, 1943, [Hannah ­Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid. 13. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Los Angeles, testimony of Hannah Takagi Holmes, August 8, 1981. 14. Memo to Dr. Genevieve W. Carter, February 9, 1943, [Hannah Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC. 15. Eldridge B. Dykes, undated memo, [Hannah Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, DC. 16. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Los Angeles, testimony of Hannah Takagi Holmes, August 8, 1981. 17. Our World, 1943–1944, Manzanar High School yearbook, UCLA, Special ­Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, Los Angeles. 18. War Relocation Authority Application for Leave Clearance, WRA Form 126, [Tomokichi Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, ­Washington, DC. 19. Holmes interview by Hansen. 20. Nancy Ikeda Baldwin, in discussion with the author, June 12, 2012. She also shared her incarceration experiences with me. 21. Helen Keller, letter to Hannah Takagi, August 2, 1943. 22. “Helen Keller Sends Message to Handicapped Student Here,” Daily Tulean ­Dispatch (Tule Lake, CA), August 13, 1943. 23. Holmes interview by Hansen. 24. War Relocation Authority Application for Leave Clearance, WRA Form 126, [Tomokichi Takagi] Evacuee Case File, Record Group 210, National Archives, ­Washington, DC. 25. [Hannah Takagi] Registration Card, Board of Education, City of Chicago, courtesy of Chicago Public Schools, Department of Compliance, Former Student Records, June 19, 2012. Her enrollment was from September 22, 1943, to September 5, 1944. 26. Holmes interview by Hansen. 27. Holmes, Hannah Takagi, “Meet the Deaf Plaintiff—An Adult Educator!” In Too Long Silent: Japanese Americans Speak Out, edited by Roger W. Axford, 36–39 [Lincoln, NE: Media Publishing and Marketing, 1986]. 28. [Hannah Takagi] Registration Card, Board of Education, City of Chicago, courtesy of Chicago Public Schools, Department of Compliance, Former Student Records, June 19, 2012. 29. Marene Clark-Mattern, email to the author, May 5, 2012. 30. Axford, Too Long Silent, 38. 31. Alice Vespa, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2012; Russell Raines, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2012. 32. Hannah Takagi, “My Favorite Little Poem,” Illinois Advance 80, no. 2 (1946). 33. Hannah Takagi, “If We Had No Books,” North Wing 5, no. 3 (1944). 34. Carol Ann Friedman, in discussion with the author, September 14, 2012. 35. Dwight Edwin Holmes, in discussion with the author, July 17, 2012. 36. Friedman discussion.

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37. Ibid. 38. Axford, Too Long Silent, 39. 39. Dwight Edwin Holmes discussion. 40. Axford, Too Long Silent, 39. 41. Friedman discussion. 42. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Los Angeles, testimony of Hannah Takagi Holmes, August 8, 1981. 43. Ibid. 44. Holmes interview by Hansen. 45. Dr. Arthur Hansen, email to the author, July 15, 2012. 46. Kitayama, Glen, “National Council for Japanese American Redress (NCJAR),” in Encyclopedia of Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present, updated ed. [New York: Facts on File, 2009]. 47. Bulk Access to Govdocs, 847 F.2d 779, William Hohri; Hannah Takagi Holmes et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The United States of America, Defendant-Appellee. No. 87-1635. http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/1986/sg860392.txt. 48. Associated Press, “Japanese-Americans Sue the U.S. over Internment,” Spokane Chronicle [Spokane, WA], March 17, 1983. 49. Ronald Hirano, in discussion with the author, May 15, 2012. 50. Ruth Miyauchi, interview by Preston, Neglected Cultural Legacy. 51. Manzanar Historic Site, Doll and Quilt, National Park Service, US Department of Interior, 1988, http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/manz/exb/Remembering/ Pilgrimage/MANZ2596_doll.html. 52. Friedman discussion. 53. Dwight Edwin Holmes discussion.

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Józef Jerzy Rogowski: A Unique Figure in Polish Deaf History

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Tomasz Adam Świderski

The history of Deaf people in Poland is a brand-new field of research. In fact, in-depth studies in the field did not begin until 2008. Before that, the history of Deaf people had been raised sporadically, for example, during anniversary celebrations or in short articles. I was the first to research the topic thoroughly. I have studied numerous forgotten sources, covered with the dust of time. In my research I discovered many stories of Deaf community activists. Thanks to this work, the figure of Józef Jerzy Rogowski was rediscovered. Rogowski was one of the most outstanding Deaf community ­activists of the pre–World War II period. As a child, he was determined to ­become a role model for Deaf people even though those who were ­closest to him did not believe he could do so. Nonetheless, because of his relentless efforts to fulfill his dream, he managed to procure a position in the Magistrat, the local government office for the capital city of W ­ arsaw. At the turn of the twentieth century, for a Deaf person to get such a job equated to entering the social elite and proved how effective faith in

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one’s abilities can be. A self-taught person, Rogowski, from his earliest years, was eager to develop his knowledge and vocabulary. Thanks to his educational achievements, he was able to improve the living conditions of Deaf people, and he dedicated his life to serving them. The essential traits of hard work and persistence helped shape an appropriate attitude for working with the Deaf community. Rogowski’s name should be well known, as he is an excellent role model for generations of Deaf people not only in Poland but also worldwide.

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Childhood Józef Jerzy Rogowski was born on March 12, 1871, on the estate of Repla, near Grodno. He was the son of Piotr Rogowski and Pelagia Rogowska, née Leinhardt. His father was a land steward, a position that was usually granted only for several years, and because of that, the family often had to move. In 1879, when Józef was eight, he began studying at the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind in Warsaw. At this time oralism was not officially sanctioned. An in-house school statute adopting oralism was enacted in 1906. At the time Józef was attending the institute, the position of schoolmaster was held by Jan Papłoński,1 a hearing educator who is well known in the history of surdopedagogy (a branch of pedagogy concerned with teaching people with hearing impairments). Papłoński favored the use of sign language as the first language of Deaf children. He claimed that speech should be an additional element that would facilitate the lives of Deaf children. Every year Józef received school awards for his achievements. He wrote: “We had to study hard because the schoolmaster did not like lazy pupils and often controlled our school progress.”2 In Józef ’s day, people attached great significance to education. Classes were held both mornings and afternoons. In due time Józef completed his studies at the institute: “At the age of 14, with a graduation certificate and an award—a book with a red cover.”3 One of the book awards from 1881, when Józef was ten years old, has been preserved; its inscription says that Józef received it for outstanding diligence, school progress, and good conduct. After graduation, Józef came back to the Białystok region, where his parents were then employed as land stewards on Baron Kruzensztern’s

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The name sign of Józef Rogowski. Photo by Michał Jaromin.

estate.4 During his stay, he helped his mother sew clothing for his younger brothers and took up sculpting. It was during this time that he read a book by the Polish writer Kraszewski and wrote about his impressions: “I will never forget this good novel.”5 Later he read works by other famous Polish writers, including Adam Mickiewicz and Henryk Sienkiewicz. Undoubtedly, Józef ’s love of reading helped him improve his command of the Polish language. Józef also helped his father with office work such as calculating the weekly reports of workers’ daily wages. There and then, he began to love this type of work and started dreaming about a career as a clerk. When Józef was still at school, Eustachy Rosnowski, a former student, visited one of his old teachers. Rosnowski worked as a clerk in a currencyexchange bureau at the government bank in Warsaw. Since he had managed to achieve his goals, he served as a role model for Rogowski, who wrote about meeting Rosnowski: “A nice title tempted me and a thought crossed my mind that I should follow in his footsteps. I decided to choose this occupation.”6 However, Józef ’s father did not support his son’s goals, as he did not believe his son could ever land such a job. He advised him to instead become a tailor—a job that seemed more achievable for a Deaf person. However, Rogowski could not imagine working as a tailor because, as he wrote, “after sewing for a long time, I felt an unpleasant pain in my neck.”7 Around this time he wrote letters about

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60  :  Tomasz Adam Świderski

his career aspirations to his old teacher, Mr. Witkowski, and to the Rev. Prelate Teofil Jagodziński.8 Both of these men politely advised him not to try to get a clerking job as there were many hearing graduates applying for such positions, and in those days it was difficult for Deaf people to find professional employment. When he was at home, Rogowski studied a lot on his own. He was assisted by his older brother, who was a student in Petersburg. Rogowski studied foreign languages: Russian, German, and French. He explained to his surprised father that “the lesson is never wasted, learning foreign languages is never a waste of time and maybe one day I will go abroad.”9 Having no prospects at home, he decided to go back to Warsaw to look for a job.

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Back in Warsaw: The First Search for Work Around 188910 Rogowski returned to Warsaw. Initially he worked in a sculpting workshop, but he did not abandon his dream of becoming a clerk. He said: “But the dream of a government post still tormented me. One of my dear friends11 used to say that those who look for a job by storm [or with daring] can always find it.” Encouraged by this friend, in 1894 he summoned up the courage to visit the governor, Pavel S­ huvalov.12 He stood in a crowd of applicants with an application form in his hand, waiting for his turn. Count Shuvalov started questioning each applicant, and when it was Rogowski’s turn, the Count read his application and wrote in one margin that he should go to the main office. “It was a glimmer of hope, but I was afraid to go there,”13 wrote Rogowski about his first unsuccessful attempt to get a clerical job. He did, however, get a job in the private office of an engineer,14 but it was only temporary. Rogowski was hoping for a permanent position, so he was directed to the senior engineer15 for the city of ­Warsaw in the Magistrat’s office. After a long struggle, he began working at a r­ egistrar’s office, where he kept records of commissioned and completed work. He also started working as a graphic designer, copying site plans. He had been employed in this capacity for two years when the governor forwarded his application to the incumbent mayor of Warsaw, Nikolai Bibikov. At first the mayor had some doubts as to whether a deaf ­person could effectively

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work as a clerk. Then he learned that one Deaf person was an employee of the national bank16 and another worked for the Credit-Landed Society17 and that they were very highly regarded. After c­ onfirming these facts, the mayor agreed to appoint Rogowski as a grade-crossing attendant. Rogowski started working on October 1, 1896, which was a memorable date for him since this was the first step toward achieving his dream. He wrote: “The job was minor, but I know that a lot of people with secondary and even higher education had fought for it. I remember one young engineer who had been forced to stick with this job until a more suitable vacancy arose.”18 Rogowski was satisfied merely by the thought that he had managed to get a job. He had been chosen from a large group of applicants. His supervisor liked him for his reliability and experience, and Rogowski held the position for twenty years, which made him an object of envy among his coworkers.19 A year after the outbreak of World War I, he was forced to evacuate with the ­Russian authorities. Initially he stayed near Vilnius and later went to Russia. In his memoirs Rogowski wrote that when he arrived in Kiev, he had to handle the official correspondence from Moscow, the current seat of Warsaw’s Magistrat. In Kiev, ­Rogowski found a job in building strategic roads for the war effort. Rogowski returned to Warsaw in 1918 and was employed as a measurement technician, or office clerk, in the Magistrat. He emphasized

Józef Jerzy Rogowski

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that, because of his perseverance and patience, he was happy in his job. In his writings he advised other Deaf people as follows: “I wholeheartedly ­recommend these virtues to all my companions in the disability.”20 On ­November 17, 1918, at noon, Rogowski married Maria Wiktoria Łopieńska, a Deaf woman.21 The wedding service was held in Saint ­Alexander’s parish, and the mass was said by the Rev. Stefan Kuczyński, chaplain of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind. The couple was childless.

Rogowski’s Work for the Deaf Community

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“Providence,” the Christian Deaf-Mute Society On May 5, 1883, the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind Alumni Association (Towarzystwo Głuchoniemych Byłych Wychowanków i Wychowanic Warszawskiego Instytutu Głuchoniemych i Ociemniałych) was founded. It was the second Deaf society in the former Polish ­territory and the first under Russian rule. (Poland was then divided into Russian, Austrian, and Prussian partitions, and Warsaw belonged to the Russian partition.) At that time, Rogowski, who was twelve years old, was a ­student in the fifth grade and could watch the first organizational meeting, which was attended by the elite of the Deaf community, who held higher-status jobs. Rogowski recalled this meeting in the f­ ollowing words: “I felt strangely moved seeing those strangers, so tall that I felt like a dwarf compared to them and I had to look up to see the faces of these giants.”22 Undoubtedly, the meeting made an impression on the ­little boy and i­nfluenced his future work for the Deaf community. R ­ ogowski became a member of the society in 1889, when he was ­eigh­teen.23 He became a member of its board in 1901,24 the earliest date found in the sources. He was reappointed as a board member ­during a society ­meeting in 190425 and again in 1907.26 In the documentation from 1908, his function is listed as secretary27 of the board. After the death of Józef Maksymilian Sułowski, chairman and treasurer of the society, during a meeting on March 7, 1909, Rogowski was appointed secretary and treasurer28 in place of the deceased.29 The society frequently organized balls for Deaf persons, to which it invited journalists from local newspapers. Articles about these events were filled with admiration, as at that time it was believed that

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Deaf ­people were unable to dance because they could not hear. One ­newspaper article30 reported that Rogowski and A. de Flasillier served as the ­masters of ceremony. Apparently, then, after three years Rogowski had settled into the Warsaw Deaf community. Records of similar events also appear in newspapers from 1894, which report that Rogowski, who was one of the masters of ceremony, danced traditional Polish dances.31 He was also one of the originators of masquerade balls for members of the Deaf-Mute Society. One such event took place on February 16, 1901, and was photographed.32 On March 8, 1908, the society organized a lottery for Deaf persons. The l­ottery took place in the Deaf tavern on Piwna Str. 11 in Warsaw. ­Rogowski was one of its organizers. The money collected was given to the poorest Deaf people.33 During the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Warsaw Deaf-Mute Society on November 25, 1908, Rogowski gave a talk on the topic of establishing a home for elderly Deaf people. Afterward, donations were collected for this undertaking. Thanks to Rogowski’s words, a sum of around 155 rubles was raised. This amount did not cover all of the costs but was a milestone in the process of creating such a necessary institution.34 The initiative was still ongoing in 1909.35 Participants of the 1919 general meeting of the society passed a ­resolution that changed its name to the Christian Deaf-Mute Society. (For unknown reasons, a separate association for Deaf Jewish people had been formed in 1916.) The “Providence” part was most p ­ robably added in 1923 or 1924.36 Later that year, the society’s bylaws were changed to allow current members to hold the position of chairman. In the past, that office had automatically been assigned to the headmaster of the I­nstitute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind, and Deaf individuals could serve only as board members. After the bylaws were changed, the headmaster served only as guardian, and members could be appointed as chair. ­Rogowski was appointed for this post. He became the first deaf chairman in the history of the province of Mazovia and held the o ­ ffice until 1933. However, Rogowski did not serve as chair from 1924 to 1930, as ­during this period he was chairman of the Polish Association of ­Deaf-Mute Societies (discussed later). The Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind offered evening courses for Deaf people who could not read or write and those who wanted to

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i­mprove their education. Rogowski voluntarily served as lecturer for these courses. He was joined in this endeavor by Kazimierz Włostowski.37 Apart from these two men, the classes were given by the institute’s teachers, who were hearing and followed an oralist approach.38

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The Polish Association of Deaf-Mute Societies Before the establishment of the Polish Association of Deaf-Mute ­Societies, there had been about twenty deaf societies in the territory of the ­Second Polish Republic. These groups had a limited field of action, ­usually ­restricted to one city. Deaf persons faced many problems and had many  interests that had to be protected. For example, only one in five Deaf children ­received a formal education. As a result, illiteracy among Deaf people was a serious problem, especially in rural areas. Moreo­ ver,  Deaf people were frequently exploited by both their families and strangers and were treated as a cheap workforce in farming. In response, ­activists from the different societies proposed that one common asso­ ciation of Deaf people should be created to safeguard their interests.39 From the twenty-first to the thirty-first day of December 1923, the Christian Deaf-Mute Society celebrated its fortieth anniversary in W ­ arsaw. At this time, the idea of establishing the Polish Association of DeafMute Societies was put forward. Leading activists from the ­largest societies in the Second Polish Republic—Gdańsk, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Łodź, ­Warsaw—took part in the anniversary celebrations. This was an opportunity to discuss the issue. Rogowski himself was likely the originator of the idea to establish a new organization, as he was appointed its chairman. Agreeing to assume this office, Rogowski appointed a committee of three people to draw up bylaws for the association. He chose Józef Jaworski,40 Eugeniusz Stankowski, and Kazimierz Włostowski for this committee. Rogowski was also elected chairman of the meeting of Deaf-Mute Society representatives, which took place on August 15–16, 1924. The convention was held to discuss matters connected with e­ stablishing the association. Rogowski, as one of the initiators, raised the issue of standardizing Polish Sign Language (which had been influenced by the period of partitions, which resulted in different sign languages being used in different areas of the country) and publishing a newspaper for Deaf persons.

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After the second convention on January 1, 1925, efforts were made to approve the bylaws of the Polish Association of Deaf-Mute Societies. On June 17, 1925, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare issued a letter asking the association to send one member to make amendments in the bylaws. Rogowski agreed to do so. He wrote, “A curious incident took place there. The chairman was shocked to see that I had come with a notebook and a pencil and said that it would be hard to communicate using these. But once he had learned that the statutes were created by me, he asked me to sit closer to him! We talked for almost three hours.”41 The bylaws were legalized by the ministry on August 11, 1925. During the general meeting of the association, Rogowski was appointed chairman; Kazimierz Kraszewski (grandson of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, a well-known Polish writer), treasurer; and Józef Jaworski, secretary.42 Establishing the association was an important achievement for the Deaf community in the Second Polish Republic. Letters sent from the organization to the Ministry of Education drew the authorities’ attention to the lack of schools for Deaf children in most cities. As a result, such schools were founded in Cracow, Vilnius, and Rybnik. All of this demonstrates that Rogowski, a knowledgeable man, put a great deal of emphasis on the education of Deaf children. The issue of establishing a home for elderly Deaf people was also raised by the association. Moreover, in 1926, several conferences were organized to address the cultural and educational problems of Deaf ­persons. At these conferences Rogowski gave speeches encouraging charitable work.43 Rogowski acted as chairman until 1930, at which time he began serving as treasurer, an office he held until about 1932 or 1933.44

Warsaw Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute Little information is available about Rogowski’s work to promote sports among Deaf people. It is known that he was chairman of the Warsaw Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute [Warszawski Klub Sportowy Głuchoniemych] in 1924 and that he held this office for a year. He might have renounced this position in order to assume the duties of ­ ssociation of Deaf-Mute Societies. Due to lack chairman of the Polish A of information, h ­ owever, I do not discuss Rogowski’s involvement in

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Deaf sports organizations any further.45 However, his service to the club was not forgotten. In 1932 Rogowski became an honorary member of the committee formed on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the ­Warsaw Sport Club.46

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Rogowski as Delegate to International Conventions of Deaf People From the first to the fourth day of August 1912, the International ­Congress of the Deaf-Mutes was organized in Paris. This process was combined with celebrations of the two-hundredth birthday of the Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée. An invitation to this event was sent to three members of the Warsaw Deaf-Mute Society: Józef Rogowski, ­Maria Łopieńska (Rogowski’s future wife), and Zygmunt Wojciechowski. ­Rogowski was overjoyed at receiving an invitation. He wrote, “I cannot miss such a rare opportunity to take part in the congress.”47 He wrote an appeal to the Warsaw newspapers for funding to attend the congress, but no one responded. Rogowski received one hundred rubles from the society’s fund, but this amount did not cover the travel costs. He nonetheless wrote, “Having confidence in myself and counting on some ­savings, I set out to the country of great culture and civilization. I hoped that I would come back with more experience and a handful of good advice useful to our community.”48 Together with his friends Tadeusz Tłuchowski and Jakub Wajtzblum,49 he went to Berlin by train. They stopped in Częstochowa to pray in the sanctuary. Rogowski had a gift for the organizers of the congress: a silver plate50 with an inscription ­engraved by Zygmunt Wojciechowski, a Deaf craftsman.51 The inscription, in Polish and French, read as follows: “The Warsaw Deaf-Mute ­Society pays tribute to Rev. de l’Épée, the first Enlightener of the Deaf on the occasion of his 200th birth anniversary. 4-August-1912.” The plate had a mahogany frame decorated with four small rosettes made of silver, which had been made by Antoni Lamentowicz. An interesting anecdote is connected to the plate. Rogowski recalled that “A Prussian customs officer wanted to take away the plate to impose a customs duty on it. Tłuchowski made a violent gesture, trying to explain in sign language

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Józef Jerzy Rogowski: A Unique Figure in Polish Deaf History  :  67

that the plate was a gift for ‘Paris.’ Astonished, the customs officer gave it back.”52 On July 29, 1912, Rogowski visited a hostel for elderly Deaf ­people in Berlin. He also visited a local Deaf society and met its members, with whom he shared work-related experiences. Rogowski and Tłuchowski then set out from Berlin to Paris, arriving on July 30, 1912 (Wajtzblum joined them at the German-Belgium border). The congress addressed the issues of education, career opportunities, national and international collaboration, sign language and its value, Deaf societies, religious works, pastoral care, monasteries, legal duties, provisions for old age, religion, and schools and universities. During his stay in Paris, Rogowski had an opportunity to meet and to share calling cards with the elite of the international Deaf community, including Eugen Sutermeister53 and Henri Gaillard.54 He also visited the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris and the palace of Versailles. The ceremony paying tribute to the Abbé de l’Épée in front of the cathedral was filmed.55 Rogowski, Tłuchowski, and Wajtzblum attended a banquet in the France Hotel near Versailles.56 On their way home, Rogowski and Tłuchowski discussed “the high level of education and culture among the Deaf in other countries.”57 ­Rogowski summarized the discussion by saying, “All comparisons that we made showed how far behind these countries we were. We were filled with compassion for our Deaf back in Warsaw, who were deprived not only of the newest educational resources but also the indispensable ­cultural life. These countries are an example to follow.”58 The congress in Paris was not the last international event that ­Rogowski attended. He also participated in the All-Russian Convention of the Deaf-Mutes, which was held in Moscow in 1917.59 He went to the convention directly from Kiev, where he was staying due to the compulsory evacuation of Warsaw during World War I (during this time of the partition of Poland, Warsaw was under Russian rule).60 He was the only Deaf representative from Poland. In Moscow, after receiving twentyone votes, he was elected a member of the editorial committee.61 It is significant that Rogowski won so much recognition during the convention that he was chosen for the committee. It is likely that, because of his solemnity, skills, and poise, he gained the respect of Deaf representatives from the many countries represented. At the convention Rogowski gave a

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l­ecture about, among other subjects, a religious approach to raising Deaf children. In 1928 the International Deaf-Mute Convention was organized in the Czech Republic capital of Prague. The convention was attended by a larger group of Polish Deaf leaders: Wiesław Dobrowolski,62 Roman Petrykiewicz,63 Bogumił Liban,64 Józef Bäcker,65 H. Łabęcki,66 and Józef Rogowski as a representative of the Polish Association of Deaf-Mute ­Societies. Rogowski can also be seen in a photograph67 taken at the International Convention of the Deaf-Mutes in Liege, Belgium, dated 1930.

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Rogowski’s Publications In 1914 Rogowski published under his own imprint a booklet titled “The International Deaf-Mute Congress in Paris, 1–4 August 1912: A Report Presented at the Deaf-Mute Meeting on 6 October 1912.” The profit from selling the booklet was earmarked for the cultural goals of the Deaf-Mute Society to promote a positive Deaf identity. The pamphlet was a detailed and vivid description of Rogowski’s journey to Paris and his stay at the congress. From 1927 to 1928 Rogowski was a member of the editorial council of the Deaf-Mute World (Świat Głuchoniemych) monthly magazine, which published several of his articles on different aspects of the Deaf societies’ work.68 Some of the articles had an autobiographical character.69 During his work for the Polish Association of Deaf-Mute Societies, ­Rogowski published a newsletter called the Announcement of the Polish Association of the Deaf-Mute Societies. He also published an interesting article titled “Summer Holidays”70 about his vacation trips. Moreover, in 1909 Rogowski also wrote the funeral speech for Józef Maksymilian Sułowski, whose service to the Deaf community he extolled.71

Rogowski’s Sudden Death At seven o’clock on January 25, 1933, Rogowski fainted in his house on  Żurawia 29/12 Street. Although an ambulance came immediately, ­Rogowski died. The cause of death was an aortic aneurysm. His obituary

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Józef Jerzy Rogowski: A Unique Figure in Polish Deaf History  :  69

was published in the next morning’s newspaper, Express Poranny Warszawski.72 He was buried in Powązki Cemetery. His grave (number 315) is in the PPRK section, next to the cemetery wall and near the fifth gate. His wife, Maria, died in 1957, and she was also buried there.

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Conclusions Having read the biography of Józef Rogowski, one can say without ­hesitation that Rogowski was an outstanding Deaf activist. His public service to the Deaf community through the Warsaw Deaf Society (later known as the Christian Deaf-Mute Society “Providence”) and the ­Warsaw Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute was of great benefit to Deaf people from Mazovia. His work in the Polish Association of Deaf-Mute Societies led to increased attention from the government with regard to the problems confronting Deaf people in the Second Polish Republic. His participation in international congresses shows his willingness to learn more about the situation of Deaf people in different countries, his efforts to improve the education of Deaf children, and his readiness to look for solutions to their problems. In his public work, Rogowski used the knowledge he acquired while attending these events. Rogowski’s wisdom is reflected in his articles about the Deaf ­community, which now have historical value. His works also attest to his interest in the everyday problems of Deaf people. Undoubtedly ­Rogowski can well serve as an exemplary role model for current and future generations of the Deaf community not only because of his work but also because of his ambition, which drove him to achieve his childhood dreams. His efforts to encourage solidarity among Deaf people set a commendable example for others to follow.

Notes   1. Jan Papłoński (1819–1885), schoolmaster of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind in Warsaw from 1864 to 1885.   2. J. Rogowski, “Życiorys Jana Papłońskiego [Jan Papłoński’s biography],” Nasze Pisemko. Gazetka szkolna głuchoniemych (May 1932): 2.  3. J. Rogowski, Przewodnik Głuchoniemych (March 1933): 1.

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70  :  Tomasz Adam Świderski  4. This was probably Aleksander Kruzensztern (1807–1888), chairman of the ­diplomatic office of the viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland and a senator.   5. J. Rogowski, “Jak dostałem się na służbę rządową,” Świat Głuchoniemych (April 1927): 2.   6. Ibid.   7. Ibid.   8. Rev. Teofil Jagodziński (1833–1907), catechist at the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind from 1858 and schoolmaster at the institute from 1885 to 1887. Coauthor of Słownik mimiczny dla osób głuchoniemych [Sign Language Dictionary for the Deaf-Mute] published in 1879, which is considered the first sign language dictionary in Poland.   9. Ibid. 10. That year, Rogowski became a member of the Deaf-Mute Society of the Alumni of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind. It is the presumed date of his arrival in Warsaw. Having heard about the society, he probably became a member soon after his arrival. 11. Unfortunately, the friend’s identity remains unknown. Rogowski never m ­ entioned the person’s name in writing. 12. Pavel Andreyevich Shuvalov (1830–1908), count, Russian politician and ­diplomat, governor-general of Warsaw from December 13, 1894, to December 12, 1896. 13. J. Rogowski, “Jak dostałem się,” 3. 14. His identity remains unknown. 15. Rogowski did not mention the engineer’s name. 16. This was probably Eustachy Rosnowski, graduate of the Institute for the DeafMute and Blind in Warsaw. 17. This was probably Mieczysław Pętkowski, clerk in the administration branch of the Credit-Landed Society in Warsaw. 18. J. Rogowski, “Jak dostałem się,” 3. 19. Ibid. 20. Ibid. 21. Diocese Archive in Warsaw, records of married couples in Saint Aleksander’s parish, 282/1918. 22. J. Rogowski, “Z pamiętnika Głuchoniemego [From the diary of the Deaf-Mute].” In Pięćdziesięciolecie Chrześcijańskiego Towarzystwa Głuchoniemych “Opatrzność” w Warszawie [25th Anniversary of the Christian Deaf-Mute Society “Providence”] ­(Warsaw, 1934), 27. 23. Ibid. 24. “Zabawa głuchoniemych [Party for the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Warszawski (February 17, 1901). 25. “Warszawskie Towarzystwo Głuchoniemych [Warsaw Deaf-Mute Society],” ­Kurier Warszawski (December 19, 1904). 26. “Posiedzenia u głuchoniemych [Meeting of the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Warszawski (December 30, 1907). 27. “Komitet Towarzystwa Głuchoniemych w Warszawie [The Committee of the Deaf-Mute Society in Warsaw],” Goniec Poranny (April 8, 1908); Archiwum Zarządu Głównego Polskiego Związku Głuchych (AZGPZG) [Archive of the Polish Deaf Society Board; hereafter cited as AZGPZG], Pismo Komitetu Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Głuchoniemych z 19 października 1908 r. In Kronika Sułowskiego, 163. 28. Needs further research. 29. “The Deaf-Mute Society,” Kurier Warszawski (March 8, 1909).

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Józef Jerzy Rogowski: A Unique Figure in Polish Deaf History  :  71 30. “U głuchoniemych [Visiting the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Poranny (February 8, 1892). 31. “Bal głuchoniemych [The Ball for the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Poranny (February 9, 1896); “Zabawa u głuchoniemych,” Kurier Warszawski (February 9, 1896); “Na balu głuchoniemych,” Kurier Poranny (January 1, 1894); “U głuchoniemych,” Kurier ­Poranny (February 15, 1899); “Bal głuchoniemych,” Kurier Poranny (February 6, 1902); “U głuchoniemych,” Kurier Warszawski (February 24, 1903); “ ‘Sylwester’ u głuchoniemych,” Kurier Warszawski ­(January 2, 1908). 32. “Zabawa głuchoniemych [Party for the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Poranny (February 17, 1901). 33. “Podziękowanie [Gratitude],” Kurier Warszawski (April 5, 1908). 34. “25-lecie Towarzystwa Głuchoniemych [25th anniversary of the Deaf-Mute ­Society],” Kurier Warszawski (November 26, 1908); “Schronisko dla głuchoniemych [Shelter for the Deaf-Mute],” Kurier Warszawski (December 13, 1908). 35. “Z Towarzystwa Głuchoniemych [From the Deaf-Mute Society],” Dziennik (January 25, 1909). 36. No sources were found that explicitly give the date on which “Divine Providence” was added. Needs further research. 37. Kazimierz Włostowski (1903–1991), born deaf, one of the most active Deaf community activists in Poland. Cofounder of the Lodz Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute, the Warsaw Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute, chairman of the Christian Deaf-Mute SelfHelp Society in Lodz (1934–1935), member of the Polish Association of the DeafMute Societies (1930–1931), and author of numerous articles on the problems of Deaf ­communities. Włostowski also took part in the Warsaw uprising and was held in a POW camp in Sandbostel. 38. Komunikat 2-gi Polskiego Związku Towarzystw Głuchoniemych [The Second Announcement of the Polish Association of the Deaf-Mute Societies], Warsaw (1932), 15. 39. B. Szczepankowski, Zarys historii stowarzyszeń głuchoniemych 1876–1946 [An Outline History of Deaf-Mute Societies from 1876 to 1946], Warsaw (1996), 33–34. 40. Józef Kościesza Jaworski (1863–?), Deaf painter and photographer; student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow; and chairman of the first Galician DeafMute ­Society “Hope” in Lviv (1913–1917) and of the Christian Deaf-Mute Society ­“Providence” (1924–1930). 41. J. Rogowski, “Polski Związek Towarzystw Głuchoniemych. Szkic historyczny [Polish Association of the Deaf-Mute Societies. Historical outline],” Świat Głuchoniemych (February 1927), 4. 42. Ibid., 2–5. 43. J. Rogowski, “Polski Związek Towarzystw Głuchoniemych (Dokończenie) ­[Polish Association of Deaf-Mute Societies. Ending],” Świat Głuchoniemych (March 1927), 6–7. 44. In 1932 his official position was treasurer, but it is not known whether he held the  office until his death (Komunikat 2-gi Polskiego Związku Towarzystw Głuchoniemych, Warszawa (1932), 1). 45. Despite my requests, the board of the Polish Deaf-Mute Sport Club and the Warsaw Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute denied access to their archives. 46. AZGPZG, Kronika Sułowskiego, 213. 47. J. Rogowski, Międzynarodowy Kongres Głuchoniemych w Paryżu d.1–4 ­sierpnia 1912r. Sprawozdanie przedstawione na Zjeżdzie Koleżeńskim Głuchoniemych dnia 6 pażdziernika 1912 r. [International Congress of the Deaf-Mute in Paris, August 1–4, 1912. A report presented on the Deaf-Mute Convention on October 5, 1912], Warsaw (1913), 4. 48. Ibid., 5.

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72  :  Tomasz Adam Świderski 49. Jakub Wajtzblum, a Deaf man of Jewish origin, owner of the “Snycerpol” workshop in Warsaw, board member of the Jewish Deaf-Mute Society “Spójnia” in Warsaw, and student at the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind in Warsaw. Wajtzblum perished at the Majdanek concentration camp in May 1943. 50. Rogowski wrote that the plate was donated to the museum of the Deaf-Mute Institute in Paris. In 2009, during my stay in Paris, I attempted to find the plate, but the current authorities of the institute did not know anything about it. The museum was closed due to renovation. 51. Zygmunt Wojciechowski, board member of the Warsaw Deaf-Mute Society. An engraver by trade. Before World War I Wojciechowski had his own engraving workshop in Warsaw, on Podwale 14/5 Str. 52. J. Rogowski, Międzynarodowy Kongres Głuchoniemych, 6. 53. Eugen Sutermeister (1862–1931), a deaf engraver, founder of the Swiss DeafMute Society (1911), first evangelical preacher for Deaf people, and editor of the ­Schweizerische Taubstummenzeitung from 1907 to 1931. In J. Hruby, Velký ilustrovaný Průvodce neslyšÍcÍch a nedoslýchavých po jej ich vlastnÍm osudu (Prague: Federace ­Rodicu a pratel sluchove postizenych, 1999), 237. 54. Henri Gillard (1866–1939), a deaf Frenchman, “the consul of the Deaf,” ­editor of La Revue des Sourds-Muets, and writer. In J. Hruby, Velký ilustrovaný Průvodce neslyšÍcÍch a nedoslýchavých po jej ich vlastnÍm osudu [Prague: Federace Rodicu a pratel sluchove postizenych, 1999], 238. 55. The film was screened at the Siła theater on Marszałkowska 118 Str. during the Deaf-Mute meeting in Warsaw on October 6, 1912. It has not been preserved. 56. J. Rogowski, Międzynarodowy Kongres, 1–22. 57. Ibid., 22. 58. Ibid. 59. J. Rogowski, Jak dostałem się, 3. 60. W. Kowalew, U Istokowi obszczestwa: Perwaja wserossijskaja organizacja gluhonemyh (1917–1920). In materials from Wtorogo Moskowskogo simpoziuma po istorii głuhih [Moscow: Izdannje osuszczestwleno za sczet sredstw MGO WOG, Komiteta ­socjalnoj zaszczity g. Moskwy, ROOI “Pomoszcznik,” 1999], 53–54. 61. The committee consisted of the following members: A. S. Grizanow, Józef Petrowicz Rogowski, Aleksandr Siergiejewicz Dawidow, Gawrił Georgijewicz ­ ­Aleksiejew, and E. A. Smirnowa. 62. Wiesław Dobrowolski (1899–1969), who took part in the October Revolution, worked for Deaf groups for many years. He was a member of the publishing committees of many local newspapers, such as Świat Głuchoniemych, Sport i Wychowanie fizyczne głuchoniemych, and Kalendarz Głuchoniemych. After WWII he served as secretary of the Polish Deaf Association. 63. Leon Roman Petrykiewicz (1901–1986), a Deaf man who was a pre-WWII ­activist in the Deaf community in Lviv, took part in the defense of the city. He was a board member of the Lviv Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute and the Lesser-Poland DeafMute Society “Hope” in Lviv. After WWII he served as chairman of the executive board of the Polish Deaf Society in Warsaw (1955–1967). 64. Bogumił Liban, chairman of the Jewish Deaf-Mute Society “Przyjaźń” in ­Cracow. 65. Józef Bäcker (1899–1983) was one of the most outstanding activists of the Deaf community in Lviv. He was a board member of the Lviv Sport Club for the Deaf-Mute,

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the Lesser-Poland Deaf-Mute Society in Lviv, and the Polish Sport Club for the DeafMute. After WWII he served as chairman of the Polish Deaf Society in Wroclaw. 66. H. Łabecki, “Międzynarodowy Zjazd Głuchoniemych w Pradze Czeskiej ­[International Deaf-Mute Convention in Prague],” Świat Głuchoniemych 8–9 (1928), 4. 67. Archives of the Polish Deaf Society in Poznan, Władysław Krzyżkowiak’s chronicle, no pagination. 68. J. Rogowski, “Polski Związek Towarzystw Głuchoniemych. Szkic historyczny,” Świat Głuchoniemych (February 1927), 2–5.; J. Rogowski, “Polski Związek Towarzystw Głuchoniemych (Dokończenie),” Świat Głuchoniemych (March 1927), 6–7; J. ­Rogowski, “Noc Sylwestrowa,” Świat Głuchoniemych (January 1928), 2; J. Rogowski, “Hołd głuchoniemych Polski dla Ojca Świętego [Polish Deaf Paying Tribute to the Pope],” Świat Głuchoniemych (November–December 1929), 5. 69. J. Rogowski, “Jak dostałem się,” 2–3. 70. J. Rogowski, “Z wywczasów letnich,” Komunikat Polskiego Związku Towarzystw Głuchoniemych (March 1932), 19–23. 71. AZGPZG, Kronika, k.261. 72. “Nagły zgon prezesa Instytutu Głuchoniemych” [Sudden death of the chairman of the Institute for the Deaf-Mute and Blind], Express Poranny Warszawski (January 26, 1933).

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Matsumura Sei-ichirô: The First Deaf President of a Japanese School for Deaf People

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Akio Suemori

According to several biographies (Nishi-Tonami District Office 1909; Ishizaki 1955; Fukumitsu Town Office 1971; Kitano 1979), Matsumura Sei-ichirô (1849–1891) was the first president of the Kanazawa school for the deaf and blind (SDB) (see figure 1), which means he was the first deaf president of a SDB in Japan. Indeed, only three deaf presidents of a SDB in Japan have been identified up to the present time: Matsumura of the Kanazawa SDB, Tsujimoto Shigeru (1893–1979) of the Yakumo SDB, and Koiwai Zehio (1894–1981) of the Matsumoto SDB. Such historical facts strongly indicate that Matsumura was an outstanding deaf person and should be considered an important part of Japanese deaf history. However, Matsumura resigned as president of the Kanazawa SDB in 1881, the same year the school was founded (table 1). In addition, the school completely closed in 1887 because of financial problems and the difficulty of recruiting sufficient numbers of deaf students (table 1).

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figure 1. Matsumura Sei-ichirô.

­ ccordingly, some historians of special education evaluate his managerial A effectiveness as poor, as he had limited abilities to solve financial problems, and he often asked his relatives for loans (Kitano 1979). N ­ evertheless, few historical documents describing the financial problems of the Kanazawa SDB have been discovered, and thus it has not definitively been established how Matsumura managed the Kanazawa SDB. table 1. Chronological Table of the Kanazawa School for the Deaf and Blind, Bankoku Chishi Kaitei, and Matsumura

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Years

Kanazawa School for the Deaf Bankoku Chishi and Blind Kaitei

1875 (Meiji 7)

The book was translated and compiled.

1876 (Meiji 8) 1877 (Meiji 9) 1878 (Meiji 10) 1878 (Meiji 11)

living in Tokyo The first edition was published.

1879 (Meiji 12) 1880 (Meiji 13)

Matsumura

living in ­Kanazawa The school was founded. (continued)

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table 1. (Continued)

Years

Kanazawa School for the Deaf Bankoku Chishi and Blind Kaitei

1881 (Meiji 14)

1882 (Meiji 15)

1883 (Meiji 16)

transfer of management to Kanazawa kyôiku sha The school was closed. Kanazawa kyôiku sha was ­dissolved.

1884 (Meiji 17) 1885 (Meiji 18) 1886 (Meiji 19) 1887 (Meiji 20)

Assets and ­liabilities were disposed.

The second edition was published. The third edition (first version) was published.

The fourth edition living in was published. ­Fukumitsu The fifth edition was published.

1888 (Meiji 21) Copyright © 2014. Gallaudet University Press. All rights reserved.

Matsumura

living in ­Kanazawa

1889 (Meiji 22) 1890 (Meiji 23) 1891 (Meiji 24)

died (44 years old)

Bankoku Chishi Kaitei Alternatively, some sources state that Matsumura published the g­ eographic text Bankoku Chishi Kaitei (BCK) (A Guide to World ­Geography). The BCK was mainly a translation of Mitchell’s Primary Geography, which had been published in the United States in 1851 (Mitchell 1851). Therefore, ­Matsumura clearly belongs to the group of Japanese scholars of ­Western studies who ­introduced European and/or American works to Japan during the early

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Matsumura Sei-ichirô : 77

Meiji period (Ishizaki 1955). However, no bibliographic studies on the BCK were reported. Apparently little or no research has been done on how ­ anazawa Matsumura as a scholar of Western studies contributed to the K ­ eiji ­period in Japan. SDB and the education of deaf children in the early M These issues led me to bibliographically investigate the BCK. In this essay I present a bibliographic analysis of the various editions of the BCK, reevaluate Matsumura’s activities from that viewpoint, and suggest the possibility of a relationship between the publishing of the various editions of the BCK and support of the Kanazawa SDB.

A Bibliographic Analysis of the Book

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Different Editions The BCK was republished in several different editions and was finally ­approved by the Ministry of Education in 1887 as a textbook to be used in hearing elementary schools (Ishizaki 1955). However, various editions of the BCK have not yet been bibliographically analyzed. To do this, I first tried to collect copies of different editions of the BCK from the ­National Diet Library and other university libraries (Suemori 2011). As table 2 shows, the bibliographical classification of the copies indicates that at least five different editions were printed. The titles of those that were published from 1878 to 1887 are as follows: BCK in 1878, Kôtei BCK (revised BCK) in 1881, Zôho kôtei BCK (revised and enlarged BCK) in 1882, Sakutei BCK (compiled BCK) in 1886, and Shinsen BCK (newly compiled BCK) in 1887. As figures 2 through 6 illustrate, an analysis of the cover styles of the five editions indicates that the editions can be divided into two groups. One group comprises two editions (published in 1878 and 1881), and the other consists of three editions (published in 1882, 1886, and 1887). This chapter presents the first bibliographical analysis of the BCK.

The First Edition Previous biographies and papers have reported that the BCK was translated and first published in 1875 (Nishi-Tonami District Office 1909; Ishizaki 1955). However, the oldest edition of the BCK found during my

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78

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first edition (1878) (Meiji 11)

second edition (1881) (Meiji 14)

first version, third edition (1882) (Meiji 15)

second version, third edition (1882) (Meiji 15)

α

α

β

β

Groups

Editions and ­Versions

Bankoku Chishi Kaitei Kôtei Bankoku Chishi Kaitei Zôho kôtei Bankoku Chishi Kaitei Zôho kôtei Bankoku Chishi Kaitei

Titles (in Japanese)

Reviewers and a Translator

reviewed by Fujita ­Toshikatsu; translated by Matsumura Sei-ichirô accepted on February 24, 1881 reviewed by Fujita ­Toshikatsu; translated and revised by ­Matsumura Sei-ichirô accepted on February 22, 1879 (error); reviewed by Fujita ­Toshikatsu; translated revised in March 1882 and revised by ­Matsumura Sei-ichirô literary permit received on February 22, reviewed by Fujita 1881 (error); revised in March 1882; ­Toshikatsu; translated revised edition approved on April 9, and revised by 1882; revised edition printed and made ­Matsumura Sei-ichirô available on April 10, 1882; revised title was made available on April 20, 1882

Descriptions offered on August 23, 1878; printed in September 1878

table 2. Editions and Versions of Bankoku Chishi Kaitei

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Tsukuba ­University; Hitotsubashi ­University

University of Nagoya

National Diet Library

National Diet Library

Libraries

79

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β

β

β

Zôho Kôtei literary permit received on February 22, reviewed by Fujita Bankoku 1881 (error); revised in March 1882; ­Toshikatsu; translated Chishi revised edition approved on April 9, and revised by Kaitei 1882; revised edition printed and made ­Matsumura Sei-ichirô available on April 10, 1882; revised title was made available on April 20, 1882 fourth edition (1886) Sakutei literary permit received on February 24, reviewed by Arai Ikuno(Meiji 19) Bankoku 1881; title revised on February 24, 1886; suke; translated and Chishi revised and printed on March 8, 1886 revised by Matsumura Kaitei Sei-ichirô fifth edition (1887) Shinsen literary permit received on February reviewed by Arai ­Ikunosuke; translated (Meiji 20) Bankoku 24, 1881; printed in March 1886; title and revised by Chishi revised on May 13, 1887; officially Kaitei ­approved on June 13, 1887 ­Matsumura Sei-ichirô

third version, third edition (1882) (Meiji 15)

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National Diet Library, Tôsho Bunko Tokushima University, Gifu ­University

author

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80 : Akio Suemori

figure 2. An inside cover of the first edition of the BCK, published in 1878.

figure 3. An inside cover of the second edition, Kôtei BCK, published in 1881.

figure 4. An inside cover of the first version of the third edition, Zôho kôtei BCK, published in 1882.

figure 5. An inside cover of the fourth edition, Sakutei BCK, published in 1886.

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figure 6. An inside cover of the fifth edition, Shinsen BCK, published in 1887.

figure 7. Preface of the first edition of the BCK.

research was printed in 1878. The colophon of this edition notes that the Tokyo Metropolitan Office was assigned the right to sell the book in August 1878 (table 2). As figure 7 shows, the preface of the BCK, dated September 5, 1876, was written by Professor Nakamura, who was one of Matsumura’s teachers (Kitano 1979). This date unquestionably i­ ndicates

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figure 8. A bill attached to the fourth edition, published in 1886.

that the first edition was published sometime after 1876. As figure 8 shows, a bill attached to the colophon of the fourth edition, printed in 1886, which was owned by a publishing company, Tôhô Bunsho, was discovered during my research (table 2). This bill states that the BCK had been in publication since 1879. The analysis led me to hypothesize that the first edition was compiled by 1875, printed in 1878, and finally sold in 1879. In addition, my analysis has uncovered some errors in previous ­biographies and other writing about the BCK. For example, the information that the Shinsen BCK was published in 1875 has appeared in a previous source (Kitano 1979); however, my research indicates unequivocally that the Shinsen BCK was published in 1887. Such errors have arisen due to the citation of these historical sources without sufficient examination of the original documents and further secondary citations.

The BCK and the Kanazawa SDB’s Financial Problem The Dawn of Education for Deaf People in Japan It is generally believed that the first school for deaf and blind students (SDB) was established in 1878 by Furukawa Tashirô (1845–1907) in ­Kyoto after the Meiji Restoration (1867–1877). It was at first a private school and later became a public school. However, there is no ­universally

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accepted theory as to when the teaching of reading and writing to deaf children was first carried out in Japan (Nakano and Katô 1967). In the following year, the second SDB was founded in Osaka. However, it ­unfortunately went from being a public school to a private school within a year ­because the Osaka prefectural assembly rejected the budget for the Osaka SDB (ibid.). In Tokyo in 1880 Professor Nakamura Masanao and other sup­ porters initiated the third SDB, which became the predecessor of the present national schools for deaf and blind children in Japan (ibid.). In 1881 Matsumura Sei-ichirô founded a semigovernmental SDB (i.e., a private school supported by a subsidy from Ishikawa Prefecture), in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture (table 1) (Ishikawa Prefecture 1909, 1974). It was not until twenty-three years later, in 1900, that a new SDB was ­established in Ishikawa Prefecture (Committee of the Conference on 13th Education for the Deaf 2001). This period, during which four SDB were established in Kyoto, Osaka, Tokyo, and Kanazawa, was considered the first wave of the ­establishment of SDBs in the history of special education in Japan (figure  9). However, because economic slackening from the 1880s to the 1900s led to fewer SDBs, the second wave of the founding of SDBs ­nationwide occurred after the turn of the century, which eventuated in the developmental division of an SDB into two schools during the 1930s: One is a school for deaf children, and the other is a school for

figure 9. A chronogram of the number of schools for deaf children in Japan.

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blind youngsters. The first wave of SDB foundation should be analyzed from a viewpoint of financial problems.

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The Book Revision and the Colophons Owners of bookshops were recorded in each colophon of the different editions, and this provided useful information about the sales network for the BCK. In the first edition, printed in 1878, only ten storekeepers in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata, and ­Fukushima prefectures in Tôhoku were listed. However, in the second edition, printed in 1881, twenty-seven storekeepers in those prefectures and in Aomori Prefecture were discovered. In addition, in the third ­edition, printed in 1882, the colophon styles were divided into three ­versions based on the recorded storekeepers. For example, storekeepers in Aichi Prefecture were newly recognized in a colophon of the first ­version of this edition, indicating that the BCK was purchased in the Tôkai region, in addition to the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Tôhoku region. While the second edition of the BCK was published in 1881, the third edition was substantially revised and first sold in Aichi Prefecture and the surrounding area of the Tôhoku region in 1882. Coincidentally, in 1882 the Kanazawa SDB was transferred to another organization, Kanazawa Kyôiku Sha, because of financial trouble. This simultaneous occurrence strongly suggests that the third edition, printed in 1882, was an attempt to raise financial support for the Kanazawa SDB. In addition, as figure 8 shows, the bill with the fourth edition also indicates that the first three editions of the BCK sold sixty thousand copies and that Matsumura and Ejima had a plan to publish a new Japanese geography text. This discovery suggests that Matsumura intended to use the royalties from the sale of the BCK and the proposed new ­geography text for financial support for the Kanazawa SDB.

Matsumura and Education for Deaf People It has been learned that, even from the end of the Edo period to the early Meiji period, administrators and teachers in SDBs received information about special education from Europe or China (Nakano and Katô 1967).

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The preface of the BCK indicated that Matsumura was taught by Professor Nakamura, who was one of the founding contributors of the Tokyo SDB and was thoroughly versed in educational methods for deaf children through his familiarity with special education in Europe and the United States. Therefore, Matsumura seemed to be well acquainted with educational techniques for teaching deaf children that were in use at this time. In addition, newspaper stories and private letters during the 1870s and 1880s indicate that Matsumura communicated with the founding contributors of the Tokyo SDB, Professor Ôuchi Seiran (1845–1918) and Tsuda Sen (1837–1908), and that they also supported the founding of the Kanazawa SDB. These sources suggest that scholars of Western studies contributed to the founding of the Kanazawa SDB. Therefore, Matsumura’s contributions should be reevaluated in light of his role as a scholar of Western studies in the early Meiji period, and he should also be considered a deaf pioneer. Interestingly, the preface of the BCK also indicated that Matsumura was born in Toyama Prefecture, became deaf at the age of fourteen, and communicated with Professor Nakamura in Nakamura’s private school in Tokyo in writing. However, from 1880 to 1881 Matsumura visited the ­Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo SDBs, where old Japanese sign language was used, before he founded the Kanazawa SDB. Thus, I hypothesize that Matsumura would have known of the existence of sign language and that deaf students of the Kanazawa SDB would have used old Japanese sign language. In this essay I have reevaluated Matsumura from the viewpoint of a bibliographic analysis of the BCK and the financial problems of the Kanazawa SDB, leading me to a hypothesis about the relationship of ­revised editions of the BCK and the Kanazawa SDB’s monetary difficulties. To corroborate my hypothesis, I was required to look for new historical documents such as the account books of the Kanazawa SDB of those days.

References Committee of the Conference on 13th Education for the Deaf. “Dawn of the Education of the Deaf in Ishikawa Prefecture and Japan during 19th-­Century Japan.” Rô kyôiku no asu wo motomete 13 (2001). In Japanese.

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Fukumitsu Town Office. Fukumitsu chô shi [A history of Fukumitsu town]. Toyama: Fukumitsu Town Office, 1971. In Japanese. Ishikawa Prefecture. Môa gakkô [Schools for the deaf and blind]. Ishikawa ken kyôiku yôran [A survey of education in Ishikawa Prefecture] (1909): 26– 27. In Japanese. Ishikawa Prefecture. Ishikawa ken kyôiku shi [A history of education in ­Ishikawa prefecture]. Ishikawa: Ishikawa prefecture, 1974. In Japanese. Ishizaki, T. Rô gakusha Matsumura Seisô sensei [A deaf scholar, Seisô ­Matsumura]. Ecchû shidan 5 (1955): 42–47. In Japanese. Kitano, Y. Shiritsu Kanazawa môa in ni kansuru kôsatsu [Analysis of the ­private school, Kanazawa school for the deaf and blind]. Tokushu kyôiku gaku Kenkyû 17 (1979): 1–8. In Japanese. Mitchell, S. Mitchell’s New School Geography, 1872. . Mitchell’s Primary Geography, 1851. . Mitchell’s School Geography, 1st ed. 1845. . Mitchell’s School Geography, 2nd ed. 1860. Nakano, Y., and Y. Katô. Waga kuni tokushu kyôiku no seiritsu [A history of special education in Japan]. Tôkyô: Tôhô Shobô, 1967. In Japanese. Nishi-Tonami District Office. Toyama ken Nishi-Tonami gun kiyô [The outline of Nishi-Tonami District, Toyama Prefecture]. Toyama: Nishi-Tonami District Office, 1909. In Japanese. Suemori, A. “Bankoku Chishi Kaitei no shoshi gaku teki kôsatsu” [A bibliographic study of Bankoku Chishi Kaitei]. In Proceedings of the 14th Japanese Deaf History Conference. 2011. In Japanese.

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Remembering a Legacy: Samuel Thomas Greene

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Clifton F. Carbin

A famous British historian and journalist once wrote, “History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.”1 This chapter contains a few selections from the story of Samuel Thomas Greene (1843–1890), a Deaf teacher and community leader. Through the decades his noteworthy contributions to Deaf history nearly disappeared into obscurity until a movement to honor his memory came about in the 1980s and 1990s. For nearly a century the eyes of residential students at the provincial school for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, were drawn to a huge, impressive 1890 portrait of a man, which was previously hung high on a wall in the ­auditorium. For years, both the identity of this gentleman and the reason for his portrait were unknown. He was simply forgotten after the school adopted the oral philosophy in 1906, gradually eliminating the use of sign language in the classrooms and by Deaf employees. The staff and teachers assumed the portrait was that of a politician or philanthropist who had ­contributed to the school. There were no stories about him to tell to the students.

1. Attributed to Alan John Percivale Taylor (1906–1990).

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Details about the mysterious man in the portrait began to emerge in the 1970s after I stumbled across some information in the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb (1847–1886) and its successor, the American Annals of the Deaf (1886–present). The subject of the painting was identified as Samuel Thomas Greene, the first Deaf teacher at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf) when it opened on October 20, 1870, in Belleville. Further discoveries about Sam’s life, his accomplishments, and his importance to the history of the Deaf community led to the publication of a biography in 2005.

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Childhood and School Days Sam’s childhood began in the secluded wilderness of Maine. On June 11, 1843, he was born Deaf to a family of seven children in North ­Waterford. The youngest of the children, he had an older sister, Sarah, who was also Deaf. Because the family lived far away from any village, church, or schoolhouse, Sam received some education at home on the farm until the age of twelve. His parents then sent him to the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now the American School for the Deaf) in Hartford, Connecticut, which his sister had previously attended from 1846 to 1851. On September 18, 1855, Sam was officially enrolled to begin his formal education. During his stay at the American Asylum, Sam progressed well in both his studies and extracurricular student activities. One of his instructors was the famous Laurent Clerc (1785–1869), a Deaf Frenchman who came to the United States and played a pivotal role with the Americanborn Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787–1851) in founding the Hartford institution in 1817. Sam eventually entered the “Gallaudet High Class,” a class of crème-de-la-crème scholars who often continued their education after graduation. From 1864 to 1866, while still a student, he was given an opportunity to teach a younger class. Exhibiting a keen interest in the school’s extracurricular activities, Sam served as librarian (1863), treasurer (1864), president (1864), and secretary (1865) of the Athenaeum of the American Asylum, an elite, student-run literary and debating society. He was also a foreman of a student fire brigade. During the American

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Remembering a Legacy  :  89

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Civil War (1861–1865), Sam was made captain of the school’s noncombat military company of students, known as the “Gallaudet Guard.” In 1866 Sam, then twenty-three years old, ended his student days at  the American Asylum and decided to further his education at the ­National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet University) in Washington, DC, where he was admitted in September that year. Sam was too much in love with college life. He struggled to balance his academic studies with campus activities. He participated in the literary society, called the College Reading Club, and was team captain of the college’s first athletic initiative, known as the Kendall Base-Ball Club. Sam was well liked by his professors and fellow students, and some lively stories about him became legendary around campus. A few examples include his catching a ball with one hand while pirouetting on one toe, carrying ladies across flooded brooks, and a frightening experience that once happened to him in the dark: During one evening adventure, Sam left the college and went to ­Baltimore, Maryland, to visit a hearing friend. When he arrived at the doorstep of his friend’s residence at nearly midnight, he forcefully pulled a rope to ring the bell several times. The loud ringing angered the ­residents. His friend, who quickly picked up a loaded revolver and opened the upper bedroom window, shouted down, asking for the name and business of the nocturnal caller. But Sam continued ringing the bell, as he could neither hear his friend nor see him in the darkness. Suddenly Sam felt the vibrations from a loud warning shot. He immediately “made rapid strides for the street, and with excited gesticulation succeeded in revealing his identity and saving himself from his friend’s revolver.” Sam often told his deaf friends about his experience and ­advised them to be careful of the danger when creating a disturbance. Most certainly his dire warning would have been accompanied by ­humorous actions and with twinkling eyes. (Carbin 2005, 56)

Professional Career On June 30, 1870, Sam, who turned twenty-seven that month, graduated from the college with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Prior to that day,

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he had been offered teaching positions at three US institutions for Deaf students. He opted for his alma mater in Hartford. However, in early September Sam received a surprise invitation to teach in Canada. He was highly recommended by Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet, then president of the National Deaf-Mute College, for a ­ ­position at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in Belleville, which was scheduled to open the following month as a new, permanent, government-funded school in the ­province. After much consideration, he accepted the position and arranged for his journey to Ontario. To the delight of a large crowd of dignitaries, functionaries, school staff, and visitors, the Ontario Institution officially opened on October 20, 1870. Sam, who was the only Deaf teacher, was introduced along with the inaugural teaching staff, which consisted of Wesley “Willie” J. Palmer ­(principal), Daniel R. Coleman, and John Barrett McGann (school founder), and McGann’s oldest daughter, Mrs. J. J. G. Terrill (née ­Euphemia ­McGann). Sam gave the audience a demonstration of the sign language (which b ­ ecame widely known as American Sign Language in the 1960s) by d ­ epicting the various passions of love, hatred, bravery, cowardice, hope, and scorn. For the next twenty years of his tenure at the Ontario Institution, Sam used his experiences as a student at the American Asylum as the source of most of his ideas for classroom practices and extracurricular activities. He devoted his teaching career to classes that were usually made up of pupils of various ages who had entered the school with few or no language skills. He recognized the need to help these students build a strong foundation for learning skills throughout their stay. Because the school embraced the American system of manual education, Sam was also assigned to train its new staff in sign language. For student activities, he started a fire brigade of older boys, a small literary group known as the Dufferin Literary Society, and a hymn-signing choir for the female students. He often entertained students who could not go home for the Christmas holidays. Sam became the first graduate of the National Deaf-Mute College to marry. On August 15, 1871, he married Caroline “Cassie” ­Campbell ­Howard, a hearing woman and a member of Belleville’s famous W ­ allbridge

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family, noted for its wealth and business enterprises. Sam and Cassie had  five hearing children: one son and four daughters, none of whom embarked on a teaching career like their father.

Community Activities

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In additional to his educational work, Sam contributed significantly to the social activities of the Ontario Deaf community. He was the originator of several associations and publications. For example, in 1886 he cofounded and became the first president of the Ontario Deaf-Mute ­Association (now the Ontario Association of the Deaf). He also cocreated an eight-page, semimonthly publication titled the Canadian Silent Observer in 1888. Sam traveled to many parts of the province and south of the border, where he gave outstanding presentations in sign language. Sam loved boating and the outdoors. Sadly, his extraordinary life abruptly ended in February 1890 after he was thrown off his homemade iceboat with sails on the frozen Bay of Quinte near the Ontario Institution. He hit his head on the ice with considerable force and remained unconscious for two weeks before dying at home. Both the school ­community and the Deaf community in general were devastated. The funeral took place at the school, and his remains were buried in section “P” of the Belleville cemetery.

Honoring Memory A few months after Sam’s passing, his friends and colleagues decided to honor him with a suitable marker in the Belleville cemetery. A committee was set up to raise funds, and contributions were received from the school staff, the Deaf community, and the general public. In October 1890 a monument in the form of a twelve-foot-tall circular column of red Scotch granite was unveiled. At the base of the marker, Sam’s surname was distinctively displayed in bas-relief characters of the manual alphabet. In the summer of the same year, during the Third Biennial Convention of the Ontario Deaf-Mute Association in Toronto, a large portrait in oils of Sam was unveiled and later given as a gift to the school.

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It was painted by one of Sam’s closest Deaf friends, Ambrose W. Mason, soon after Sam’s death. Over the years, Sam’s name and legacy slowly faded from the school’s history. The students no longer visited his monument in the Belleville cemetery, and his portrait simply became part of the wall ­décor. This was partly due to the lack of Deaf employees at the school, who would have kept his memory alive by telling stories. By the 1970s, due to my ­research findings, Sam’s name had resurfaced, and in the 1980s and 1990s the Deaf community of Ontario gradually came to know of his accomplishments. In 1993 one of the school’s residences was renamed “Greene Hall.” On July 1, 1995, during the school’s 125th-anniversary reunion weekend, a plaque to commemorate Sam’s achievements in the education of Deaf students was unveiled by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Recreation. Funds were eventually raised by the school and the Deaf community to replace the base of Sam’s century-old grave marker because his fingerspelled surname had badly deteriorated. A dedication ceremony for the replacement grave marker took place on June 11, 1997, the date of Sam’s 154th birthday. In 1999 one of the streets of the school campus became “Greene Drive.” Each year, festivities take place with skits and stories about him presented by students and alumni. The Ontario Association of the Deaf commissioned me, as one of the school’s well-known graduates and author of a previous historical book, to write a biography about Sam, which was completed and published in 2005. Sam is no longer a forgotten legend. His memory will continue to grow prouder and stronger within both the school community and the Deaf community for generations to come.

References Carbin, Clifton F. 1996. “Samuel Thomas Greene, Ontario’s First Deaf Teacher.” In Deaf Heritage in Canada: A Distinctive, Diverse, and Enduring Culture, 105–106. Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. . 2005. Samuel Thomas Greene: A Legend in the Nineteenth Century Deaf Community. Belleville, ON: Essence/Epic.

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Written into History: The Lives of Australian Deaf Leaders

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Darlene Thornton, Susannah Macready, and Patricia Levitzke-Gray

This essay attempts to redress the imbalance of the focus on non-Deaf people and their participation and achievements within Australian Deaf history. Out of numerous candidates, two Deaf individuals were selected who are excellent Deaf role models for younger generations. Fletcher S. Booth and Dorothy Shaw, born in different eras, were strong and vocal leaders in the New South Wales and Australian Deaf communities from the 1870s to the 1990s.

Fletcher Samuel Booth (1870–1956) Fletcher Samuel Booth, the eldest son of nine children born to the Rev. Samuel Booth and his wife, Emma, is believed1 to have been born Deaf. He grew up in Sydney and in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. His close-knit family was very supportive and had strong ties to the Wesleyan Church and later the Church of ­England. It seems that the whole family could communicate with Booth through

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signs and fingerspelling, as his sisters were well-known sign language interpreters in both Sydney and South Australia. From the age of seven, Booth was educated at the New South Wales (NSW) Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind in Sydney. He attended this school for about eight years. When he left at the age of fifteen, he trained as a draftsman and an architect and worked for several architectural companies in both Parramatta and Sydney. His main interests were reading (the Bible, newspapers, and books); doing crossword puzzles; boating (he owned a boat then); and socializing with Deaf people in Sydney and with his extended family.2 He married Laura A. Begent, one of the very few Deaf teachers in Sydney at this time, when they were both in their thirties. Booth had two sons with her, one of whom was Deaf. Laura died in 1946 after a short illness, and Booth died ten years later at the age of eighty-six in a nursing home for Deaf people in Strathfield, in the Sydney area. It appears that this family may have carried a deafness gene, as the subsequent generations include at least one or two family members with hearing loss.

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Dorothy Evelyn P. Shaw, née Johnston (1921–1990) Dorothy Shaw was born into a family of four that included a Deaf ­younger brother and Deaf parents, named James (Jim) and Evelyn ­Johnston (née Hair) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Dorothy grew up in a household that used Deaf Sign Language, an old name for ­Australian Sign Language (Auslan). During her childhood and young adulthood, the family participated in many activities within the ­Victorian Deaf ­community. She attended the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution (now known as the Victorian College for the Deaf) at St. Kilda, in the Melbourne area. She started her schooling when she was six and graduated with a certificate of merit when she left at the age of fifteen, as she was the dux, or top student. Shaw’s dream was to be a teacher of Deaf children; however, her financial situation and the distance prevented her from attending Gallaudet College (now Gallaudet University) in the United States. Her interests were reading books, Reader’s Digest magazines, and

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newspapers; playing sports; hiking in the bush; writing stories and letters; and spending time with family and friends.3 From the age of nine, her family lived on the grounds of the ­Victorian Deaf Adult Society in Jolimont Square in East Melbourne. Thus, Shaw was influenced by a variety of individuals and organizations as well as by her experience and training. Her father, Jim, was employed as an assistant missioner and was responsible for assisting the missioner (an early-day welfare worker) in looking after the welfare of deaf ­people, residential officer, and caretaker of the Victorian Deaf Adult Society, which had a church for Deaf people and a club building for Deaf adults’ social meetings. Her family also participated in Deaf sports clubs and attended the Australian Deaf Games for many years. Shaw married John (Jack) Shaw in 1943. The family moved to ­Sydney from Melbourne and had three Deaf children. The Shaws are a five-generation Deaf family (so far), as each generation has at least one or two family members with hearing loss.

How Did They Contribute to the Australian Deaf Community?

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Organizations From the age of twenty-one, Fletcher Booth was a leader of the Sydney Deaf community and over the next few decades became its spokesman, diplomat, and advocate. Booth was the first native Sydneysider who was paid to take charge of “the uplift of the Adult Deaf.” He noted the lack of support for Deaf adults after leaving school and that many Deaf adults were still being guided by the people at the NSW Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind. From the 1890s on, he was paid the nominal sum of £1 per month4 for a couple of years to provide club meetings on Friday evenings and assist with the religious services at various local nondeaf churches in the Sydney area on Sunday mornings. In the beginning Booth assisted the nondeaf ministers and interpreters at the church services; eventually he assumed responsibility for church services for the adult Deaf community, which took place after the church services for hearing people. He received mentoring support mainly from ­Samuel Watson,

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s­ uperintendent of the NSW Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, who also acted as an interpreter during the Sunday services.5 Recognizing the lack of services and specialized support for Deaf adults in Sydney, Booth offered to find solutions. With assistance from Watson, he provided space for Deaf adults on the grounds of the NSW Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind by erecting the first building for this purpose. The building, named Adult Deaf, had space for a printing machine, which was used to publish several Deaf journals ­(discussed later), a reading room, and a room for club and social meetings and church services.6 After Watson’s death in 1911, the location of the Adult Deaf building on the grounds of the NSW Institution proved to be problematic for the Deaf community, so Booth sought to have an independent support service organization for Deaf adults established apart from the control of the NSW Institution and its board. After the first public meeting with many deaf and nondeaf people in 1913 in Sydney’s town hall, the proposal to form the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of New South Wales was successful.7 However, as was common practice with other charitable Deaf organizations in Australia, nondeaf people rather than Deaf adults themselves were appointed to the board, which created friction and power struggles for many years. Booth encountered this issue several times during his tenure with the board of management of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW, so he and other Deaf and nondeaf adults who were dissatisfied with how the group was catering to the Deaf adults in NSW decided to form an independent, Deaf-controlled organization, called the New South Wales Association of Deaf and Dumb Citizens (also known as the Association). This new organization, established in 1929, had a Deaf majority on its board, with only one or two hearing men (as representatives of the public as well as interpreters). Predictably, this new organization was met with resistance from the board of management of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW since it meant serious competition for the provision of services, especially with regard to government funding and charitable donations to the Deaf adults in New South Wales. Later, Booth, with the support of Australian Deaf adults, formed and presided over a national organization named the Australian A ­ ssociation

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Written into History  :  97

for the Advancement of the Deaf (AAAD), which was designed to be run by and for Deaf people and was intended to counterbalance the hearingdominated, state-based Deaf societies. However, this association turned out be short lived, as the newly revised Charitable Collections Act of 1934 (NSW) stipulated that only one service organization could provide for the needs of the group it represented. Thus, after several years of negotiations, a forced amalgamation of the NSW Association of Deaf and Dumb Citizens and the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW took place without any Deaf board members in the leading Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW. After the 1940s Booth reduced his political involvement in the Deaf community and, until his death in 1956, attended only the Deaf club at 5 Elizabeth Street in Sydney (the same building that he originally helped to select, renovate, and work in as part of the offices for the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW).

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Dorothy Shaw became active in several Deaf organizations when her three Deaf children attended the NSW Institution for the Deaf and Blind. However, her potential as an influential leader, mentor, and ­activist for the Sydney and Australian Deaf communities was not apparent until the 1970s, when she attended an educational conference and ­presented what would be the first of many papers. Shaw believed strongly that language fluency is the key to independence for Deaf people and that Deaf people needed to take responsibility for the progress of their community. From 1947 on, she was a board member of several organizations such as the Deaf Tennis Club, the Deaf Women’s Guild, the Deaf General Committee of the Deaf ­Society of NSW, and the NSW Committee of the Australian Sign Language ­Development Project (ASLDP). However, she was proudest of her integral involvement with four important organizations. The first of these was called Concerned Deaf for Total Communication in Education, which Shaw initiated and presided over from 1981 to 1984.8 This group declared that it would focus on the development of Total Communication for Deaf children in educational institutions throughout Australia and promote the use of both sign language and English. This

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group’s work resulted in the creation of the Signed English dictionary (still in use today in most areas of Australia) and the use of Signed English in classrooms for Deaf children everywhere in Australia, displacing pure oralism as the core of the national education policy. Next, Shaw lobbied for and assisted with the formation of the ­Australian Caption Centre, the launch of telephone typewriters (TTYs) in Australia, the research and development of an Auslan dictionary, and the recognition of Auslan as the official language of the Australian Deaf Community in the 1990s.9 The last and the two most significant organizations Shaw helped to establish were the Australian Association of the Deaf (AAD) in 1986 and Deaf Action Books in 1983 (the latter was later renamed Deafness ­Resources Australia, or DRA). Shaw believed that Deaf people needed to educate society and lobby for better living standards for Deaf people across Australia. Thus, the AAD covered the political aspect of lobbying for services for Deaf people, while DRA focused on increasing access to information about and for the Deaf community by providing products and equipment. Since that time, the AAD has become Deaf Australia (DA) and taken over the DRA as part of its services, naming it the Auslan Shop.

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Publications for the Deaf Community Fletcher Booth, with his fluency in both Auslan and written English, was the driving force behind two publications: the Silent Messenger and the Deaf Advocate. The former, which, as far as can be ascertained, is the first publication in NSW for Deaf people by Deaf people, was first printed in 1906 in Sydney and is still in circulation today. Although many stops and starts have occurred over this Deaf journal’s life span, its main aim has been to inform and educate Deaf adults about current affairs, personal news of the members of the NSW Deaf community, and issues that affect them. Booth was officially its editor for many years, perhaps until the late 1920s, and contributed photos, informative articles, and religious passages. The Deaf Advocate was another publication by and for the NSW Deaf community. It was started in 1929 after Booth and company

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formed the NSW Association of Deaf and Dumb Citizens, with Booth as its coeditor. The aim of this publication was similar to that of the ­Silent Messenger, and for about ten years before the forced amalgamation of the two NSW Deaf organizations, these two publications competed with one another. The Deaf Advocate stated that it aspired to be the voice of “deaf aims and ambitions and the deaf spirit of independence.”10 Its circulation had expanded from three hundred readers at the start to four thousand at its peak, and the paper was initially sent to readers in NSW but later expanded to an Australia-wide readership. It is believed that some issues may even have reached other countries. Booth also wrote about the history of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of NSW from 1938 to 1943, describing his involvement with and the development of the Deaf community in NSW. One detects a ­certain shift in the tone of these historical papers from pride in the d ­ etails of the organization to a stifled impartiality in several versions of those p ­ apers.11 Booth wrote several letters to the newspapers of his time, mainly the Sydney Morning Herald, clarifying or reporting on the progress of Deaf adults and their organizations and on church services. Dorothy Shaw was a prolific writer of letters and stories. However, she also wrote speeches; papers for local, national, and international conferences; articles; and a short autobiography for an edited book of autobiographical stories called I Always Wanted to Be a Tap Dancer.12 The letters varied widely from personal and supportive (such as those to soldiers during World War II) to political (regarding the need for Auslan recognition, services for Deaf persons, and education for Deaf children). She started writing in her early twenties and continued until her death in 1990. After her one-year attendance at a technical college, where she took a creative writing course, in 1985 Shaw set up the Deaf Writers Group, which continued for a few years. This group published several issues of the Deaf literary journal Sound Off, in which Shaw shared her stories with other Deaf writers.13 In the conference papers she wrote, she raised various issues, such as Deaf children’s access to education, Deaf people’s access to sign language, and access to services such as captions and other resources. She was very vocal about the concerns that she was passionate about and attended many mainstream and Deaf conferences. Shaw

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submitted articles and letters to the Silent Messenger, encouraging Deaf adults to be more proactive about the issues that affected them and to take responsibility for the needs of the Deaf community.

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What Have They Left Behind? Booth’s and Shaw’s activism resulted in an interesting array of both ­organizations and resources that are still in existence today and of ­benefit to the present members of the Australian Deaf community ­regardless of whether they are aware of this. The known organizations are Deaf ­Australia (the successor of the AAAD, which was cofounded by Booth, and the AAD, which was cofounded by Shaw); the Australian Captions Centre (cofounded by Shaw); the Auslan Shop (the successor of DRA, cofounded by Shaw); and the Deaf Society of NSW (cofounded by Booth). The known resources are the publications the Silent Messenger (Booth); stories and papers by Shaw and Booth; the Australian Signed English Dictionary and the Auslan Dictionary (Shaw); and Heritage in Our Hands, a video documentary of recollections by Deaf adult members of the NSW Deaf Community (Shaw). Recently Booth was posthumously recognized for his services to the Deaf Society of NSW, which named its boardroom after him, while Shaw was also honored for her services in numerous ways. She was awarded two prestigious medals, the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee medal in 1977 and the Order of Australia in 1987 (she was the first Deaf Australian to be awarded this medal) for her services to Deaf people in Australia. Deaf Australia has a perpetual Dorothy Shaw Deaf ­Australian of the Year Award in memory of Shaw as “a tireless worker for Deaf rights in ­Australia.”14

Notes   1. Nancy Booth [Fletcher Booth’s granddaughter], interview by author, 2012.   2. Ibid.   3. Informal interviews with Shaw family members.   4. Notes on Origins and Growth of Adult Deaf.

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Written into History  :  101   5. Ibid.   6. Fletcher Samuel Booth, History of the N.S.W. Adult Deaf Society Organisation Work.   7. “Adult Deaf and Dumb Society: Meeting at the Town Hall,” Sydney Morning ­Herald (October 21, 1913), 10, col. 4, http://trove.nla.gov.au.   8. Shaw, Correspondence and Papers.   9. Ibid. 10. Carty, “Managing Their Own Affairs,” 151. 11. Fletcher Samuel Booth, History of the N.S.W. Adult Deaf Society Organisation Work. 12. Lawrence and Edwards, I Always Wanted to Be a Tap Dancer. 13. Shaw, Correspondence and Papers. 14. Deaf Australia Inc., Deaf Australian Awards.

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References Booth, Fletcher Samuel. History of the N.S.W. Adult Deaf Society Organisation Work. Unpublished. Archives of Deaf Society of NSW, 1943. Carty, Bridget Mary. Managing Their Own Affairs: The Australian Deaf ­Community during the 1920s and 1930s. PhD diss., Griffith University, Brisbane, 2004. The Deaf Advocate. 1929 to 1935? Edited by Fletcher Booth and Ernest ­Quinnell. Archives of Deaf Society of NSW. Deaf Australia Inc. Deaf Australian Awards. Accessed May 2012, http://www .deafau.org.au/community/awards.php. Heritage in Our Hands. Stories of the Deaf Community of NSW. Transcripts of Heritage in Our Hands, a series of seven videotapes of interviews with senior Deaf people in Auslan. Sydney: Adult Education Centre for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Persons Inc. with support of the N.S.W. Assoc. of the Deaf, 1990. Lawrence, A., and S. Edwards, eds. I Always Wanted to Be a Tap Dancer. ­Parramatta, NSW: Women’s Advisory Council, 1989. Notes on Origins and Growth of Adult Deaf Society. Unpublished. Archives of Deaf Society of NSW, n.d.Shaw, Dorothy E. P. Correspondence and Papers. Dorothy Shaw Collection. NSW State Library. The Silent Messenger. 1906–present. Edited. Archives of Deaf Society of NSW.

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Laurent Clerc: A Complex and Conflicted Deaf Man in ­America

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Christopher A. N. Kurz and Albert J. Hlibok

The unexamined life is ignorance. In the 1970s Robert F. Panara, a ­renowned deaf professor of literature at the Rochester Institute of ­Technology, acknowledged the depressing lack in both American and world literature of the genuine life stories of deaf people: “[I]t is time that the deaf are studied as the human beings that they are—as a living representation of the experience of Everyman in his journey through ­ undreds of deaf life.”1 Since then, postrevisionist writers have brought h 2 persons to light in the literature. In this chapter we draw on ­primary sources to examine Laurent Clerc’s inner self, his successes and ­struggles as a deaf man in the New World, and how he dealt with ­issues relating to family, religion, deafness, and the growing Deaf community.

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Family: Deaf Wife, Hearing Children, and Hearing Grandchildren As a young, single, Catholic man in a growing country, Laurent Clerc desperately needed someone with whom he could share life and rear a family. When Clerc first taught at the Hartford school, he was thirtyone years old. His deaf female pupils ranged in age from nine to forty. Naturally, the pupils, female and male alike, looked up to Clerc as their role model, for he was deaf, communicated in sign language, and knew about the world. After school they would visit him in his apartment for conversation in sign language. In September 1817 school board member Nathaniel Terry, whose deaf daughter attended the school, wrote a letter to Thomas H. Gallaudet accusing Laurent Clerc of fraternization with students. The issue was later resolved when Gallaudet responded, in writing, and defended Clerc’s character:

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to have an opportunity out of school hours, of enjoying the pleasure of social conversation with the young ladies. They esteem this, too, a peculiar privilege, & I may add, also, that it is a singular advantage to them, in as much as their chief business here is to acquire language, & his language of signs is the foundation of all their improvement. . . . the origin of the charge, which has been made, that he is too attentive to them. I know his disposition well. He is as far aloof from any petty jealousy or retaliation as any man I was ever acquainted with.3

Well into retirement, Clerc continued his habit of welcoming groups of students to his home after class for a chat. It is certain that one of the ladies who frequented Clerc’s social affairs was Eliza Crocker Boardman from Whitesborough, New York, who enrolled at the Hartford school in 1817 at the age of twenty-four. Of Laurent Clerc, Eliza wrote the following in a letter to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: “Mr. Clerc made signs and teaches the deaf and dumb about God and Jesus Christ . . . I believe Mr. Clerc will go to France in one year. We are sorry it.”4 Clerc, love struck by Eliza’s beauty, intelligence, and character, needed to wait until Eliza’s graduation in 1819 to share his love. Clerc was relieved when Eliza told him that she felt the same way. They were married at her uncle’s house

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104  :  Christopher A. N. Kurz and Albert J. Hlibok

at Cohoes Falls near Watertown, New York, on May 3, 1819, one month after graduation. Clerc was shocked when Gallaudet advised him not to marry a deaf woman for fear that they would produce deaf children or encounter more inconveniences in society as a deaf couple.5 When Gallaudet, ­upset that Clerc was ignoring his advice, declined to be part of the ­wedding, Clerc asked Lewis Weld, one of the teachers at the Hartford Asylum, to help celebrate the wedding with him. Weld was his best man, not Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, for whom Clerc held a high respect. This was a heartbreaking moment for Clerc, but he knew he needed Eliza Crocker Boardman to love for the rest of his life. After all, they possessed a shared deaf experience and conversed in sign language. From his perspective, Laurent Clerc was vindicated when all of his children and grandchildren were hearing. In his April 28, 1858, retirement address Clerc related that “the first thing he did, on the birth of his child, was to satisfy himself by experiment that the child could hear, and how pleased he was to find that the discouraging predictions of his friends had failed to come to pass.”6 During his time, many deaf-mutes were happily married. In fact, several of his hearing friends had married deaf-mutes and had only now and then a deaf child among their offspring. In a letter to a friend, Clerc wrote: “I have now four grandchildren, all blessed with the sense of hearing, as well as their parents.”7 On the day of Laurent Clerc’s death, he had outlived four of his six children and his parents and sisters. The passing of his children, Helen (1822), John (1831), Charles (1852), and John’s twin sister, Sarah (1869), must have been heartbreaking for Clerc and his wife, although the mortality of children was high at the time. The passing of his two sisters in France and the faltering health of another sibling, also in France, ­prevented Clerc from visiting that country for a fourth time. In his 1857 letter to a friend, Clerc wrote of the death of his sisters and the cancellation of his anticipated trip to France. As his childhood family and ­relatives in France passed away, the sense of nostalgia for France and family faded as there would be no communication support from ­extended family.8 At the time of letter writing, Clerc knew he would never visit France again or see his old friends and family relatives.

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Laurent Clerc : 105

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Religious Conversion At a time when religion defined a person’s identity, one’s religious association was usually passed along by family and/or political ties. Laurent Clerc was born to a Roman Catholic family and educated as a Catholic at the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris under the supervision of the Abbé Roch Sicard. For Clerc, the world could be comprehended by an understanding of God and Jesus Christ. As Clerc’s writings demonstrate, difficult life conditions were alleviated by one’s faith in God.9 Fearing that Clerc would convert to Protestantism should he accompany Thomas H. Gallaudet, a Congregationalist, to a country where Catholicism was not highly regarded, Abbé Sicard had Clerc promise to be faithful to Catholicism: “[Y]ou would lose faith, you would have embraced a false religion for sure . . . which would be fatal if you go to a country of heretics or you would lose yourself for an eternity. I never will cry over your fate. And I never will regret the pain and care that I had given you as a good Catholic and a good Christian.”10 In a conversation with Gallaudet, Sicard was adamant that Clerc “not . . . be called upon to teach anything contrary to the Roman Catholic religion which he professes, and in which faith he desires to live and die.”11 Arriving in New York City from Le Havre, France, Laurent Clerc noticed numerous church steeples throughout the town, indicating the American belief that people should have freedom of religion. During his first years of teaching at the Hartford school, Clerc taught Catholicism to his deaf pupils.12 One of his first religious struggles came when he fell in love with Eliza Crocker Boardman, an Episcopalian. Although his May 3, 1819, wedding was conducted as an Episcopalian ceremony at the home of his fiancé’s uncle, Benjamin Prescott, Clerc remained a Catholic. Although he wrestled with his promise to Sicard, Clerc knew he would have to answer to him when he visited France after the expiration of his first contract with the Hartford school. In 1820, one month after his first daughter’s birth, he visited France for a year. In Paris he reaffirmed to Sicard his Catholic religion. After the death of his parents in the late 1810s and then Sicard in 1822, Laurent Clerc was at last free from any binding promise. He became an Episcopalian several years later: “In middle life he became a communicant of the Episcopal

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106  :  Christopher A. N. Kurz and Albert J. Hlibok

church, and ever after retained his connection with it.”13 In addition, Clerc attained US citizenship on December 11, 1838, thereby forfeiting his loyalty to the sovereign of France, King Louis Philippe, but gaining religious freedom.14

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Language Use: The Unfortunates From August 1816 to March 1817, the first seven months of Laurent Clerc’s time in the United States, he accompanied Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Mason F. Cogswell (a wealthy physician and a father in search of a better education for his deaf daughter, Alice) up and down the Eastern Seaboard on a fund-raising and marketing drive to establish and recruit pupils for a new school for deaf children.15 While in the eastern cities for legislature sessions and public audiences, Clerc gave addresses in sign language with Thomas Gallaudet’s voicing and, with chalk and slate, ­exhibited his knowledge of and perspectives on the world. In his addresses Clerc would categorize deaf people as “unfortunates.” In an address in New York City on August 19, 1816, Clerc concluded: “I thank you for it, and the interest you express for us poor unfortunates.”16 In Hartford he urged the audience to be benevolent to the deaf and dumb: “Be then so good as to hasten their happiness; your countrymen have been too negligent of that unfortunate class of deaf and dumb.”17 In ­Boston on September 10, 1816, he opened his address to a male ­audience in similar fashion: “[I wish to] speak to you more conveniently of the deaf and dumb, of those unfortunate beings who . . . would be condemned all their life, to the most sad vegetation if nobody came to their succor, but who entrusted to our regenerative hands, will pass from the class of brutes to the class of men.”18 To a female ­audience in Boston the following day he reiterated his address: “[Yesterday we spoke] of the poor deaf and dumb who abound in your own country” and of the “more than two thousand unfortunate deaf and dumb in the United States . . . While it lies in your power to contribute to render them happy here below, will you leave them to die in this sad state?”19 Clerc’s constant portrayal of deaf people as “poor unfortunates” stemmed from his experiences in France and England as part of a traveling exhibition with his mentor, the Abbé Roch Sicard, director of the Paris school

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Laurent Clerc : 107

for Deaf children. In the exhibitions Roch Sicard routinely portrayed ­ nfortunate,” “the abandoned,” and “strangers to deaf  people as “the u society.” ­Witnessing the success of Sicard’s emotional appeal, perhaps Clerc adopted the same approach. Laurent Clerc was an educated person with a brilliant mind; ­however, he did not cease to make negative generalizations about deaf people as a group. At the age of eighty-three Laurent Clerc wrote in a ­letter to a friend, “Thanks to God, I still enjoy good health and wish I had not retired so early as I could have continued to do more good to my unfortunate fellow Beings and to teach new teachers how to teach well.”20 His conviction was that uneducated deaf people may have more limitations in different aspects of life and that deaf people without knowledge or understanding of God are doomed in the afterlife. He strongly ­believed that deaf children need a good education so that they will be able to open their eyes to God and live independently in society through the use of reading and writing. In fact, Laurent Clerc, educated at the Paris school and an esteemed teacher, referred to himself as an “unfortunate.” While in New York City during his first days in the ­United States, he met with Nathaniel F. Moore, a professor at Columbia College, and communicated with him by writing with chalk and slate. The day after, ­Nathaniel wrote a letter to the Reverend John M ­ cVickar about his meeting with Clerc: “We all are very much interested in this poor unfortunate, as he calls himself; though he has, as I told him, a­ lmost lost all claim to that name.”21 Moore himself did not see Clerc as a poor unfortunate, but Clerc thought otherwise. It is possible that Clerc continued to make emotional appeals to hearing people because he believed that, if he did so, society would help people in need.

Deafness, Deaf Community, Audism Deafness can be perceived as a cultural identity, a biological condition, a disability, or a trait. Living in a society that highly values audiological input and spoken language can be a struggle for many deaf people. Some find it gratifying to be different from the norm and have unique experiences; others find it frustrating in terms of not being able to overcome societal obstacles or stigma. Laurent Clerc became deaf at a very

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108  :  Christopher A. N. Kurz and Albert J. Hlibok

early age, possibly at birth, from a fever or, as his family maintained, a fall into a fireplace. In spite of his many successes as a deaf person, Clerc would often wonder whether the grass was greener on the other side. During his second visit to France in 1843, he saw an opportunity to cure his deafness: One day, in walking through Lyons, seeing a crowd of persons read-

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ing a notice stuck on the wall at the corner of a street, I had the ­curiosity to examine it. It announced that a Mr. LaFontaine would give in the evening, at the hotel Du Nord, an exhibition of experimental magne­tism, at which he would operate on a young girl and present the p ­ hysical ­phenomena [sic] of magnetism, and produce ­ecstasy ­under the ­influence of music; that he would also introduce a deaf and dumb young man of Lyons, whom he said he had succeeded in making hear by magnetism, and submit to the magnetical operation many other deaf and dumb, whom he would try to enable to hear also. I ­immediately concluded to attend the exhibition, and to request Mr. LaFontaine to experiment upon me, should he succeed, that the operation might be decisive.22

However, Clerc was prevented from attending the exhibition when his son, Charles, became ill. He later learned from deaf students at a nearby school that the experiment was a total failure. Clerc felt that God had a better plan for him, which was to continue educating deaf people. Sign language is the lifeblood of the Deaf community. Laurent Clerc was proud that he brought his sign language from France to the ­United States. In his teaching, he employed the methodical signs, that is, English-order signing, as he believed it was the only way for students to learn reading and writing. His educational experience dictated this belief, as he had learned French through the methodical French signs. Occasionally, he would criticize his students for sign production errors and for not adhering to his sign repertoire. A former student wrote the following: It seemed to distress him [Clerc] to see me make any sign wrong, or in a clumsy manner. I remember well how I once met him in a street in a great hurry, and told him my mother was visiting me. I was going to

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Laurent Clerc : 109

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run right by, but he stopped me, and made me repeat what I had said, and then corrected one or two faults, nor would he let me go until I had made every sign to his satisfaction.

During that incident, Clerc became upset when the student signed mother with an open-palmed hand (5) with a thumb resting on the cheek rather than the old sign with two productions, mother-baby (the baby symbolizes motherhood). Though he was the originator of the modified French American Sign Language, Clerc struggled with the natural evolution of this language. He did not realize that languages must evolve if they are to survive; all he wanted was for everyone to use the same language. A few years after Clerc arrived in the United States, he conceived the idea of establishing an exclusive community of, for, and by deaf people, where they would find jobs and communicate in sign language. In 1819, after he found that a land parcel in Alabama had been put aside for funding the Hartford School, Clerc suggested “the plan of selling such part of  the land . . . for the Asylum, and then having the rest as head quarters for the deaf and dumb, to which they could emigrate after ­being educated.” The idea was tabled until John Jacobus Flournoy, a deaf ­Georgian and former student of the Hartford school, picked it up in 1855 and ­petitioned for the formation of a deaf colony in the West; ­Oregon was the destination. In the Deaf community, the deaf colony debate ­intensified, and Clerc felt obliged to respond to it. He realized it would take a ­miracle to make this colony happen, especially when deaf parents have ­hearing children. What would become of these youngsters? Clerc pointed out this problem: “It was very convenient to have some hearing persons within call in many cases, as for instance, sickness and fire.”23 Clerc acknowledged the potential of deaf people, as when, in his 1816 Philadelphia address, he described French deaf people in early 1800s: “Many are married and have children . . . Many others are employed in the offices of the government, and other public administrations. Many others are good painters, engravers, workers in mosaic, and printers. Some others . . . are merchants, and rule their affairs perfectly well.”24 However, he believed deafness imposed job-related limitations in terms of deaf people’s ability to work as doctors and firefighters. ­During

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his 1843 visit to France, he stopped by a school for deaf ­children in the ­suburb of Lyons. The school was run by a deaf couple, a Mr. ­Forestier and his wife.25 Before Clerc left the school to visit his family in Le Balmes, he advised Mr. Forestier to “associate with him a clergyman, or a gentleman of respectability and talents, who could hear and speak, for the greater prosperity of the school and the better improvement of the children in written language and religious knowledge; my opinion being that, however instructed a deaf and dumb person might be, he was still less so than those who hear and speak.”26 Convinced he could run the school independently, Mr. Forestier naturally dismissed Clerc’s advice. Another example of Clerc’s belief that deaf people have limitations comes up in his 1864 address to the First Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, for the inauguration of the National College for Deaf-Mutes. Near the close of his address, in which he pointed out the importance of higher education for deaf people in their pursuit of ­happiness and independence, he signed, “The degree of Master of Arts can be conferred on the deaf and dumb when they merit it; but, on a­ ccount of their misfortune, they cannot become masters of music, and perhaps can never be e­ ntitled to receive the degree of Doctor in Divinity, in Physic, or in Law.”27 His belief that deafness imposes such limitations is a classic example of ­audism:28 “when deaf and hearing people have no trust in deaf people’s ability to control their own lives.”29 Although he had directed and transformed the Philadelphia School for the Deaf in almost eight months, he had worked under the supervision of hearing people for most of his life. What he experienced and believed was not uncommon among deaf people of the nineteenth century.

Elitism in Two Communities Throughout his life Laurent Clerc learned the importance of being affiliated with people in upper-class society, for it brings advantages in terms of opportunity and recognition. During his traveling exhibitions, he was no stranger to royalty and people of affluence in Europe. In the United States, through Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Clerc met, ­conversed with (through writing), and gave exhibitions to wealthy people, religious leaders, professors, politicians, and presidents.30 His comfortable ­salary,

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Laurent Clerc : 111

in addition to what he earned as a private sign language tutor at the ­ urope Hartford school, afforded him a life of prosperity. He traveled to E three times, owned a house and a pony, and attended social events in Hartford and elsewhere. Through his contacts in Philadelphia, Clerc met Charles Wilson Peale, who painted a portrait of Laurent and a­ nother of Eliza with baby Elizabeth Victoria Clerc. Laurent Clerc maintained his elite status in the hearing community until the resignation in 1830 of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, his ­gatekeeper to upper-class society for almost fourteen years. Clerc was upset when Gallaudet decided to resign from his principal position: “We had been so intimate, so harmonious, so much attached to each other; we had labored together so many years; that I parted with him with unspeakable grief.”31 After his resignation, Gallaudet chose to take up writing, support women’s education, and become a minister at a mental asylum. Laurent Clerc could no longer rely on Gallaudet for communication and networking. His status in the hearing community gradually diminished, and he continued to maintain his networks only through his children and their extended families.32 As the number of educated deaf people was growing exponentially, Laurent Clerc was christened by younger deaf leaders as the “Apostle to the Deaf People in the New World.”33 Clerc was invited to give presentations at events held by deaf organizations and teachers’ groups. At conferences he was often given an honorary chair while the meetings were in session. Although his status in the hearing community began to decline, his standing in the Deaf community increased. In one situation during the 1850s he repeatedly petitioned the Hartford school’s board of directors to help pay the maintenance costs for his house. Although he was drawing a pension from the school, he could not afford the house repairs, but, to Clerc’s utter frustration, the board denied his requests. In response, the Deaf community initiated a fund-raising drive to cover the cost of the repairs, posting announcements in deaf newsletters and Hartford newspapers. Clerc was upset with the notice in the Hartford newspapers, preferring that hearing people not know of his financial prob­ ecause it put him lems. He was embarrassed by this fund-raising drive b in the spotlight in the Hartford community. In the Deaf ­community, Laurent Clerc was highly respected, as he remains today.

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Every human being has successes and struggles. Even the apostles of Jesus Christ had internal struggles as they wrestled with faith, family, and money. The Apostle to the Deaf People in the New World was first and foremost a human being who happened to be deaf and who was the right man in the right time and place to bring bilingual teaching methods to the United States. As mentioned earlier, some of Clerc’s experiences and perspectives on the world are not uncommon among deaf people, especially the belief, rooted in audism, that deafness is inferior to hearing. On his deathbed on July 18, 1869, at the age of eighty-four, Clerc had fulfilled his dreams: finding love, home, and a growing community that continues to venerate him as the Apostle to the Deaf People in the New World.

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Notes   1. Panara, “Deaf Studies in the English Curriculum,” 15. Panara has published articles and books on deaf Americans and deaf characters in literature. See Robert F. Panara. Great Deaf Americans [Rochester, NY: Deaf Life, 1996]; “The Deaf Writer in America from Colonial Times to 1970: Part 1,” American Annals of the Deaf 115, no. 5 (1970): 509–13; and “The Deaf Writer in America from Colonial Times to 1970: Part II,” American Annals of the Deaf 115, no. 7 (1970): 673–79, for examples.   2. Postrevisionism was a movement in the 1970s and 1980s that held that history should stick to actual facts [who, what, and where] to explain the effects of incidents or political contexts. See Harry G. Lang, Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science [Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 1994], and Jack Gannon, Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America [Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, 1981]. In When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf, author Harlan Lane (1984), from the vantage point of Laurent Clerc, reconstructed historical events from primary sources and from Lane’s own political agenda on how deaf children should be taught.   3. Thomas H. Gallaudet, letter from Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to Nathaniel ­Terry, Thursday, September 1817. American School for the Deaf Library Archives.   4. Eliza Crocker Boardman, letter to Thomas H. Gallaudet, April 3, 1818.   5. Clerc, “Autobiography,” 111.   6. Porter, “Retirement of Mr. Clerc,” 181.   7. Clerc, “Autobiography,” 111.   8. Clerc, letter to B. Hudson.   9. Baynton, “Abraham Lincoln, Laurent Clerc, and the Design of the Word.” 10. Sicard, conversations with Laurent Clerc. 11. Gallaudet, “Conversation with the Abbé Sicard.” 12. Clerc, contract between Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, June 13, 1816.

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13. Turner, “Laurent Clerc.” 14. U.S. Citizenship Certificate, Laurent Clerc, December 11, 1838. 15. The group visited Boston, Salem, Hartford, New Haven, New York City, Albany, Philadelphia, and Burlington, NJ. 16. Clerc, “Address concerning the Deaf and Dumb in America.” 17. Clerc, “Address.” 18. Clerc, “Autobiography,” 107–108. 19. Ibid., 109. 20. Clerc, letter to Parson. 21. Moore, letter to Reverend John McVickar. 22. Clerc, “Visits to Some of the Schools for the Deaf and Dumb,” 66. 23. William M. Chamerlain, “Proceedings of the Third Convention of the New England Gallaudet Association of Deaf-Mutes,” 212. 24. Laurent Clerc, “Publick Meeting,” Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, ­December 12, 1816. 25. Mr. Forestier was a former teacher at the Paris school and moved to Lyons after the sign language debate at the institution. 26. Clerc, “Visits to Some of the Schools for the Deaf and Dumb,” 66. 27. Laurent Clerc, “Address,” 43. 28. Tom Humphries, “Communicating across Cultures [Deaf/Hearing] and ­Language Learning” [PhD diss., Union Graduate School, Cincinnati, OH, 1997]. 29. Ibid., 13. 30. Some of these people were Yale president Timothy Dwight, Noah Webster, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and President James Monroe. 31. Clerc, “Autobiography,” 112. 32. Elizabeth Victoria Clerc, his first child, married George Webster Beers, a prominent merchant from Litchfield, CT. Sarah Clerc married Henry Champion Deming, mayor of Hartford and a Civil War general. Francis Joseph Clerc was an Episcopalian priest, and Charles Michael Clerc worked as a silk merchant in New York City. 33. Abbé Roch Sicard coined the honorific in his 1816 letter to the bishop in Boston.

References Baynton, Douglas C. “Abraham Lincoln, Laurent Clerc, and the Design of the Word: Lincoln Day Address at Gallaudet University, February 11, 2009.” Sign Language Studies 10, no. 4 (2010): 396–408. Boardman, Eliza Crocker. Letter to Thomas H. Gallaudet, April 3, 1818. ­American School for the Deaf Archives, Hartford, CT. Chamerlain, William M. “Proceedings of the Third Convention of the New England Gallaudet Association of Deaf-Mutes,” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 10, no. 4 (1858): 205–219. Clerc, Laurent. “Address.” Connecticut Mirror, October 28, 1816, 1. . “Address.” In Inauguration of the College for the Deaf & Dumb, at ­Washington, District of Columbia, June 28th, 1864, 41–43. Washington, DC: Gideon and Pearson, 1864.

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114  :  Christopher A. N. Kurz and Albert J. Hlibok

. “An Address concerning the Deaf and Dumb in America.” August 19, 1816. American School for the Deaf Archives. . “Autobiography.” In Tribute to Gallaudet: A Discourse in Commemoration of the life, character and services of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D., delivered before the citizens of Hartford, Jan. 7th, 1852. With an ­appendix, containing the history of deaf-mute instruction and institutions, and other documents, edited by Henry Barnard, 102–22. Hartford, CT: Brockett and Hutchinson, 1854. . Contract between Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, June 13, 1816. Yale University Library Archives. . Letter from Laurent Clerc to John C. Parson, June 3, 1868. New York Public Library Archives. . Letter to B. Hudson, May 8, 1857. New York Public Library Archives. . “Visits to Some of the Schools for the Deaf and Dumb in France and England—I.” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 1, no. 1 (1847): 62–66. Gallaudet, Thomas. “Conversation with the Abbé Sicard.” In Journal and ­Letterbook, 1815–1816. In Tribute to Gallaudet ed. Henry Barnard. . Letter from Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to Nathaniel Terry, Thursday, September 1817. American School for the Deaf Library Archives. Lane, Harlan. When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. New York: ­Random House, 1984. Moore, Nathaniel. Letter from Nathaniel Moore to Reverend John McVickar, August 21, 1816. American School for the Deaf Library Archives. Panara, Robert. “Deaf Studies in the English Curriculum.” Deaf American 26, no. 5 (1974): 15–17. Porter, Samuel. “Retirement of Mr. Clerc.” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 10, no. 3 (1858), 181–83. Sicard, Roch. “Conversations with Laurent Clerc.” Sicard Papers, F-0035. ­Institut National de Jeunes Sourdes Archives. . Letter to the Bishop of Boston, 16 June 1816. Clerc Papers, Yale ­University Archives. Turner, William. “Laurent Clerc.” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 15, no. 1 (1870), 16–28. U.S. Citizenship Certificate, Laurent Clerc, December 11, 1838. Yale ­University Library Archives.

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Part 3

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Deaf Community Collective Histories: Stories from the Continents

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t

The Siege of Leningrad and Its Impact on the Life of a Deaf Family

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Tatiana Davidenko

I am Deaf from a Deaf family. In this essay I depict the lives of Deaf ­people in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) immediately before and during World War II. In doing so I relate the biographies of my mother and our relatives and friends. My mother, Ekaterina or Katya, was born in Leningrad in 1923. She came from a family of eleven children, two of whom died in infancy. Three of the surviving children were deaf: Aunt Marina, Uncle Vova, and, of course, my mother, Katya. Their ­oldest ­hearing sister, Valya, who left home in the early 1930s, had a deaf son, Boris. My hearing grandmother, Maria Ottovna Evert, who had ­Estonian and German roots, came from Narva, a town in Estonia. She married Alexandre Lepeshkin from Tver. Both of them had several deaf family members. The couple opened a bakery in Vasilievsky Ostrov (the name sign is fingerspelled v-o), a nice area of Saint Petersburg (the wrong sign for “Saint Petersburg” is epaulette; the older and correct sign is the right hand configuration 2 upside down on the open palm of the left hand). My grandparents were said to make the best bread and

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118 : Tatiana Davidenko

FAMILY TREE h Alexander Lepeshkin + h Maria Evert* born Narva 1891 born Tver 1884 † 04.09.42 † 1935 (twins) h Valva* d Marina* h Masha* h Mitya h Elya* h Luda* 1912 1913 1915 1916 1918 1920 †25.03.42 †30.04.42 †